13 replies to this topic

[Lazarus Long]

Define the clash of cultures?

Define the actual conflict of ideology?

Most of you are partisan so you make assumptions about "right & wrong" without analyzing the premises behind the assumptions. So I not only ask; can Theocracy coexist in a Democratic World?

I would ask all that read this to: define a legitimate government?

First and foremost for themselves but also as an intellectual exercise we can all share in and appreciate. I should acknoweldge up front and honestly that I wouldn't trade Freedom for Security so I am prepared to defend this both intellectually and in the real world but I prefer an open contest of ideas to a test of wills determined by cold steel.

This article is peripheral to what is going on but it opens the discussion and lays the basis of why all that is going on IS the concern of the Whole World and also why these are ALL Issues that will spill over many borders.


7/3/2003
In Iran, UN Official Pledges Help With Refugee Influx If Iraq War Cannot Be Avoided
Article & Links
The head of the United Nations refugee agency assured Iranian President Mohammed Khatami this week that his country would not stand alone in facing an influx of refugees if war breaks out in Iraq.

"UNHCR is here to help prepare for a possible outflow of Iraqis," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Rudd Lubbers, said, adding that the agency is doing its utmost to mobilize funds for a possible refugee situation if international efforts to avoid war in Iraq failed.

For his part, President Khatami said Iran will stand by its humanitarian responsibilities, but will need help to deal with a possible flood of Iraqi refugees. Meeting with Mr. Lubbers in Tehran today, the President underscored Iran's economic difficulties and high unemployment, saying, "We are committed to our humanitarian obligations, but at the same time, we expect the international community to help us."

During an earlier meeting with donors, Mr. Lubbers said UNHCR needed $60 million to make basic preparations for a possible refugee emergency from Iraq. The agency has so far received only $16.6 million but has spent about $25 million for its operational preparations.

Asked by one diplomat about the agency's "empty pockets," and who will be responsible in the event of a refugee influx into Iran, Mr. Lubbers said, "you are responsible, UNHCR works on behalf of the international community."

While in Tehran, Mr. Lubbers also met President Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrzai and Interior Minister Abdolvahed Musavi-Lari, as well as senior provincial and Red Crescent officials.

The High Commissioner visited possible new campsites for Iraqis at Yazde-no and Darshia, in the west of Iran, and noted that the Government has been exemplary in its efforts to handle a possible Iraqi influx, spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva.

The High Commissioner saw land being cleared for camps, and roads and other facilities being prepared. Iranian officials told Mr. Lubbers that they expect to have three sites ready in a short time. In all, seven sites are currently under preparation, out of 10 planned and each is designed to accommodate about 20,000 people, according to Mr. Redmond.

Iran has a long record of hosting Iraqi refugees and currently shelters more than 202,000 – half the world's recognized Iraqi refugee population. Mr. Redmond said the UN agency plans to support the Iranian Government and the Iranian Red Crescent in their humanitarian work, and is currently shipping relief items to Ahwaz as part of that effort.

The High Commissioner praised Iran for hosting more than 2 million refugees for the past two decades, including 202,000 Iraqis, 48,000 of whom live in 22 camps. Some 400,000 Afghan refugees have returned home in the last year, including 262,000 under a joint voluntary repatriation programme between the Iranian Government and UNHCR that started last April.

Iran is the last stop on Mr. Lubbers' 10-day trip to the region, which included visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Before leaving Islamabad, Pakistan, yesterday, he emphasized that Afghanistan's stability was a "vital security issue." But, with war looming in Iraq, he feared that donors were taking a wait-and-see approach before making firm commitments towards Afghan reconstruction.

Mr. Lubbers stressed that he still believed that a peaceful solution could be found in Iraq, and appealed for continued aid as UNHCR begins a three-year programme of repatriation from Pakistan - seen as central to a final resolution of the decades-old Afghan refugee problem. UNHCR plans to help up to 1.2 million Afghan refugees return home this year, mainly from Iran and Pakistan, while it expects to assist another 300,000 internally displaced Afghans to return to their communities.

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©EuropaWorld 2003

[Lazarus Long]

This is a page of related articles that may help provide various contrasting views and facts to those that are interested in serious study and analysis of the current problems. This news service may be found here:
The Iran Expert

Iranian MPs approve move for free elections.- Iran's pro-reform parliament has passed a controversial bill to guarantee free parliamentary elections, a decision that threatens to deepen tensions between the country's reformist and conservative camps.-Financial Times 7 March
http://www.iranexper...anmps7march.htm

In case of war, Russians would be evacuated via Iran .- Russia would evacuate its remaining citizens from Iraq via neighboring Iran in case of war, a senior Russian official said.-
Moscow Time 7 March
http://www.iranexper...aqwar7march.htm

Leaders of Turkmenistan, Iran to discuss rise in gas exports 10 March.- Turkmen President Saparmyrat Nyyazow will visit Tehran on Monday 10 March to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart President Mohammad Khatami on gas deliveries and the legal status of the Caspian Sea.-
Interfax News 7 March
http://www.iranexper...istan7march.htm

Iranian border town dreads ravages of war.- Dislike of Saddam Doesn't Translate to Support For U.S., Few Iranians suffered the ravages of their bloody, eight-year war with Iraq more than the residents of this sleepy little border town.-Knight Ridder News 6 March
http://www.iranexper...ofwar6march.htm

Iranian Journalists Denounce Crackdown.- Iranian journalists denounced the hard-line judiciary's press crackdown that has closed about 90 reformist publications and imprisoned dozens of writers and activists.-Associated Press 6 March
http://www.iranexper...ciary6march.htm

Iran-backed forces join those vying for influence in N. Iraq.- In a grassy field peppered with rocks in this eastern corner of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, some 200 Iraqi Shiite soldiers are building a camp big enough for five times as many troops.-Christian Science Monitor 6 March
http://www.csmonitor...07s01-woiq.html

Lack of international funding imperils refugee camps in Iran.- Iranian officials are building at least seven refugee camps inside their country that could stay empty for lack of international funding, despite an expected flood of refugees if the United States invades Iraq.-Knight Ridder News 6 March
http://www.iranexper...nding6march.htm

Iran defence minister mocks Iraq peace plans in apparent snub to FM.- Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani mocked rival peace plans for Iraq put forward by the United Arab Emirates and his own cabinet colleague, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi.-AFP 5 March
http://www.iranexper...ister5march.htm

Iran alone cannot help new Iraqi refugees, Khatami tells Lubbers.- In a meeting today with UN refugee agency chief Ruud Lubbers, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said his country was prepared to stand by its humanitarian obligations.-UNHCR News 5 March
http://www.iranexper...ugees5march.htm

Fate of two key Iranian reform bills in 'serious doubt'.- Strong opposition from senior hard-line clerics has cast serious doubt on whether two key reform bills that seek major changes in the ruling establishment will be approved, a top official said.-Associated Press 5 March
http://www.iranexper...bills5march.htm

Muslim Leaders Gather; Iran Calls for U.N. - Supervised Elections in Iraq.- Iran announced an Iraqi peace proposal including U.N. supervised elections as Muslim leaders gathered for an emergency summit expected to focus on the prospect of a U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein.-
Associated Press 5 March
http://www.iranexper...aders5march.htm

Alarm as Iranians open atomic plant.- Iran will start operating a uranium processing plant within the next few weeks, it said yesterday, a move that has long concerned experts as a stage in the possible development of nuclear weapons.-Telegraph 5 March
http://www.iranexper...plant5march.htm

Iranian intellectual lecture on secularism in Iran.- A mixed crowd of students, faculty and community members listened intently to the soft-spoken speech entitled "Secularism in the Islamic Republic of Iran" given by Abdulkarim Soroush, one of Iran's foremost contemporary scholars.-
Tufts Daily 4 March
http://www.iranexper...arism4march.htm

Russian foreign minister to visit Iran March 10-12: embassy.- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov is to visit Iran on March 10-12 for talks on bilateral, regional and international issues, including the Iraqi crisis, the Russian embassy said.-AFP 4 March
http://www.iranexper...ianfm4march.htm

Taiwanese Men Charged Over Military Exports to Iran.- Two Taiwanese businessmen have been indicted for conspiring to buy U.S. weaponry for Iran, the latest in a string of arms smuggling schemes foiled by stepped up enforcement in the aftermath of Sept. 11, federal authorities announced.-Associated Press 4 March
http://www.iranexper...ports4march.htm

U.S. says opposed to Iran-backed forces in north Iraq.- The United States said on Tuesday it knew that Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition forces had moved into northern Iraq and was opposed to their presence.-Reuters 4 March
http://www.iranexper...orces4march.htm

Iran Offers Plan to End Iraq Crisis.- Iran offered a plan Tuesday to avert war in neighboring Iraq, calling for elections supervised by the United Nations and urging the nation's divided opposition to reconcile with President Saddam Hussein.-Associated Press 4 March
http://www.iranexper...nplan4march.htm

Iranian reformers engulfed by fundamentalist election landslide.- Reformist allies of the Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, conceded yesterday that they had suffered a crushing defeat in municipal elections at the hands of Islamic conservatives opposed to democratic and social change.-Guardian 3 March
http://www.guardian....,906278,00.html

Iran dumps Pakistan in favour of India.- Iran's decision to allow India the use of its land, airspace and military bases in the event of any outbreak of tension with Pakistan has stunned Islamabad for the sudden turnaround of its one-time trusted ally.-Sify News 3 March
http://www.iranexper...dumps3march.htm

Another Persian mystery.- "Death to America!" the crowd chanted as it surged towards the former US embassy in central Tehran. And for good measure: "Death to Israel! Death to the English!"-
Financial Times 3 March
http://www.iranexper...stery3march.htm

Iranian-based militias deploying in Kurdish Iraq, complicating volatile mix in region.- The fighters say they are Iraqi patriots who came to Kurdish northern Iraq to fight off foreign invaders — but the green telephone at their camp has a sticker identifying it as the property of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.-Associated Press 3 March
http://www.iranexper...hiraq3march.htm

Web watched.- The Iranian internet's days as a home of unrestricted information could be numbered, When Iraq's foreign minister made a controversial visit to Iran recently, the news was broken first on the internet.-Guardian 3 March
http://www.guardian....,906581,00.html

Iran to help wounded soldiers in any Iraq war .- Iran will help any wounded soldiers that enter its territory during an expected US-led strike on Iraq, in line with international law, a foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday. AFP 2 March
http://www.iranexper...rhelp2march.htm

Iran municipal polls turnout averages less than 40 percent: official .- Turnout for Iran's municipal polls which marked the first electoral setback for reformers in several years averaged just 39 percent, a senior official said Sunday, and participation in big cities was far lower. AFP 2 March
http://www.iranexper...rnout2march.htm

Reformist losses, apathy at Iran polls a warning to Khatami .-The first election reverse suffered by Iran's reformers in municipal elections, as well as the extremely low voter turnout, were seen Sunday as signs of frustration with President Mohammad Khatami and a rejection of infighting with Islamic conservatives. AFP 2 March
http://www.iranexper...nloss2march.htm

Election loss clips Khatami's wings .-Reformers in Iran have suffered their first election defeat since President Mohammad Khatami was elected in a landslide in 1997. BBC 2 March
http://news.bbc.co.u...ast/2813135.stm

Reformers suffer blow in Iran polls.- Local elections in Iran have delivered a major boost to Islamic conservatives in the country, initial results show.According to partial counts, conservative candidates are set to win 14 out of 15 council seats in the capital Tehran.-BBC 2 March
http://news.bbc.co.u...ast/2812005.stm

Reformers under pressure in Iranian elections.- Reformers allied with the Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, faced a test of their popular strength yesterday in local elections.-
Guardian 1 March
http://www.guardian....,905295,00.html

War offers Iran ticket off axis of evil.- Thirteen months after President Bush called Iran part of an “axis of evil,” and on the eve of a possible U.S.-led war against Tehran’s similarly vilified neighbor, Iraq, the Iranian government has quietly weighed its reputation as an international pariah against America’s superpower might.-NBC 28 February
http://www.iranexper...t28february.htm

Youngest ayatollah: US is 'naive' about Tehran politics.- Ayatollah Abbas Hosseini Ghaem-Maghami, politician and theologian, considers himself a bridge between Iran's moderates and radicals.-Financial Times 28 February
http://www.iranexper...e28february.htm

Liberal dissidents on the ballots for first time in 20 years in Iranian election.- Iran For the first time in two decades, liberal dissidents were on the ballot for Iran's local elections Friday thanks to a power shift in the committee overseeing elections in this conservative society.-
Associated Press 28 February
http://www.iranexper...s28february.htm

Iranian municipal polls key test for reformers.- Iranians went to the polls Friday to elect new town and city councils in a test for reformers close to President Mohammad Khatami.-AFP 28 February
http://www.iranexper...s28february.htm

Hard choices for Iran's ayatollahs.- A journalist friend called from somewhere in the Middle East. His question: what is the meaning of the increasing calls from some clerics in Iran that Islam really belongs in mosques, and that it has no business getting embroiled in politics.-Asia Times 27 February
http://www.iranexper...s27february.htm

UN rights watchdog attacks Iranian jails.- Iranians suffer large-scale arbitrary detentions and some prisons operate outside the control of the judicial system, the first UN human rights monitors to visit the country for seven years said yesterday.-Guardian 27 February
http://www.guardian....,903600,00.html

Iran fears Washington more than Saddam.- Amid the rumbling rhetoric and anti-U.S. diatribes issued from Tehran in recent weeks over a possible U.S.-led war on Iraq, wily former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani summed up Iran's position most clearly.-Reuters 27 February
http://www.iranexper...s27february.htm

Iran Holds Funerals in Military Crash.- Thousands of people attended public funerals in two Iranian cities Thursday for the elite troops killed in a plane crash last week.-Guardian 27 February
http://www.guardian....2439171,00.html

Iran confirms complete closure of Iraqi border.- The land border between Iran and Iraq has been closed until further notice, government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters here after a cabinet meeting Wednesday.-AFP 26 February
http://www.iranexper...e26february.htm

Saddam's poor performance gives US pretext for a war.- Iran's influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's poor performance will give Washington a pretext for war.-AFP 26 February
http://www.iranexper...r26february.htm

Iran's local elections seen as test For Moderate President Khatami's.- Dissidents, clerics, technocrats, and even a body builder wound up their campaigns on Wednesday for local elections in Iran seen as a litmus test of moderate President Mohammad Khatami's political strength.-
Reuters 26 February
http://www.iranexper...t26february.htm

Iran's legal system 'flawed'.- A team of United Nations human rights experts has concluded a visit to Iran noting serious shortcomings in the country's justice system.-BBC 26 February
http://news.bbc.co.u...ast/2802339.stm

Oman-Iran political committee meeting ends.- The 11th meeting of the joint Omani-Iranian political committee concluded at Al Ghubra Guest House.Ahmed bin Yousef Al Harthy, head of the Arab department at the Foreign Ministry.-Times Of Oman 26 February
http://www.iranexper...n26february.htm

Reformer Challenges Iran's Mullahs 'Execute me'.- Death is preferable to torture, says Sahabi, whose case is the latest twist in battle between clerics and reformists.-Straits Times 26 February
http://www.iranexper...s26february.htm

Spanish, Iranians Ask to See Pope Over Iraq.- Pope John Paul is due to meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and a top Iranian official Thursday to discuss Iraq, keeping the Vatican firmly in the diplomatic spotlight over the crisis.-Reuters 25 February
http://www.iranexper...l25february.htm

Turkmen president to visit Iran March 10.- Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov is to visit Iran next month to discuss gas exports and the problem of how to carve up the vast energy resources of the Caspian Sea, official sources said.-AFP 25 February
http://www.iranexper...t25february.htm

Iranian ambassador: Region can't take more war.- We haven't heard much lately from Iran, Iraq's large and strategically important neighbor to the east. But make no mistake: the leadership in Tehran is waiting and watching the showdown with Iraq as closely as anyone.-CNN 25 February
http://www.iranexper...r25february.htm

Khamenei makes implicit swipe at Iran reformers ahead of Friday polls.- Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an implicit swipe at reformist-led municipal councils Tuesday just three days before polling in local elections.-AFP 25 February
http://www.iranexper...e25february.htm

"Big Brother US driven by fanatic fundamentalism" Khatami says.- Iranian president Mohammad Khatami issued an extraordinary assessment of US foreign policy, accusing the United States of positioning itself as a violent "Big Brother" driven by "fanatic fundamentalism."-AFP 24 February
http://www.iranexper...c24february.htm

Iran hardliners block cleric's medical checks.- Iran's Revolutionary Guards prevented the country's leading clerical dissident from travelling to a Tehran hospital for a heart check-up, his son said on Monday.-Reuters 24 February
http://www.iranexper...l24february.htm

Iran launches Arabic-language satellite news channel.- Iran has launched an Arabic-language satellite news channel for a two-month trial period to see how it fares in the battle for Arab opinion against Al-Jazeera and other giants.-AFP 24 February
http://www.iranexper...s24february.htm

Prominent Iranian dissident arrested at airport.- Plainclothes Iranian officials arrested a prominent dissident academic at Tehran airport on Monday shortly after he arrived on a flight from France, his wife said.-Reuters 24 February
http://www.iranexper...d24february.htm

Iran: Won't take Iraqi refugees without financial help.- The Iranian government will close its borders to Iraqi refugees if there is a war involving Iraq unless someone else foots the huge bill for caring for them, government officials say.-Knight Ridder News 24 February
http://www.iranexper...s24february.htm

Campaigning Heats Up for Iran's Village and City Council Elections.- Campaigning was in full swing Monday ahead of this week's village and city council elections in Iran, with liberal dissidents running for the first time in two decades and hard-liners encouraging people to abstain from voting.-Associated Press 24 February
http://www.iranexper...s24february.htm

The Iran Connection.- Is Tehran in cahoots with Al Qaeda? And if so, why doesn’t Washington do something about it? American counter terror specialists devoutly wish they knew where Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is today.-News WeeK 24 February
http://www.iranexper...n24february.htm

Iranian Kurd MPs voice concern over Turkish occupation of Iraqi Kurdistan.- Iranian Kurdish MPs have voiced concern to the UN chief and EU over a possible Turkish occupation of Iraqi Kurdistan in case of a US-led attack on Iraq.-AFP 24 February
http://www.iranexper...s24february.htm

Iran crash black boxes sought.- Iranian search teams are struggling with bad weather to search the site of the country's worst air crash for the aircraft's "black boxes".-BBC 23 February
http://news.bbc.co.u...ast/2784079.stm

US raises fears over Iran's nuclear policy.- The top US official for arms control is to visit Russia this week to underscore concerns over Iran's nuclear programme following an inspection by the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog who said he was struck by the level of sophistication he had seen.-Financial Times 23 February
http://www.iranexper...y23february.htm

Iran urges International Court of Justice to remain impartial.- Tehran urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Sunday to remain impartial in considering its case against the United States over the destruction of oil rigs in the Gulf in 1987 and 1988.-AFP 23 February
http://www.iranexper...t23february.htm

Iran fears U.S. aims to reshape Mideast.- Iran, afraid Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, voiced greater fears on Sunday that the United States aims to reshape the Middle East by launching a war against its old enemy.-Reuters 23 February
http://www.iranexper...t23february.htm

Iraq Saddam Hussein's demise:The View From Iran.- Tehran may officially decry US plans to invade Iraq - but what really worries it is that regime change in Baghdad will prove contagious.-Australian Financial Review 22 February
http://www.iranexper...n22february.htm

Russia dismisses US worries on Iran nuclear plant.- A top Russian official on Friday dismissed U.S. concerns that Moscow's role in building the first nuclear power station in Iran could help that country get nuclear weapons.-Reuters 21 February
http://www.iranexper...s21february.htm

The view from Iran: anxious about war in a region that might explode.- "Every country agrees that Iraq should be disarmed. Iran especially has suffered from this problem, but the problem cannot be solved by war," the reformist parliamentarian and head of the Iranian Journalists Association, Rajabali Mazrooei, said in Sydney.-Sydney Morning Herald 21 February
http://www.iranexper...s21february.htm

U.N. nuclear chief arrives in Iran to visit nuclear facilities.- Natanz, Iran – The top U.N. nuclear inspector on Friday visited the site of a nuclear plant that Iran says will be used for peaceful purposes but that the United States insists is intended to fuel a secret weapons program.-
Associated Press 21 February
http://www.iranexper...r21february.htm

U.S., Russia to discuss Iran’s nukes,.- Tehran’s new nuclear program alarms Bush administration
The Bush administration, deeply concerned about Iran’s announced plans to develop its own nuclear fuel.-Reuters 20 February
http://www.iranexper...s20february.htm

Iranians despise Saddam, worry about Washington.- If there is one thing Iranians and their government agree on, it is the desire to see the back of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.-
Reuters 20 February
http://www.iranexper...m20february.htm

Ilyushin crash puts spotlight back on perils of Iran's skies.- The crash of a military Ilyushin-76 aircraft has put the spotlight back on insecurity in the skies of Iran, mostly due to the dilapidated state of the Iranian fleet and a US embargo on technology transfer.-AFP 20 February
http://www.iranexper...h20february.htm

302 military killed in Iranian plane crash.- A plane carrying 302 people, all members of the elite Emam Ali Revolutionary Guards, crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran today and all on board were killed, state-run media reported.-Associated Press 19 February
http://www.iranexper...s19february.htm

The Willful Blindness of those Who Will Not See.- Iran holds all the records for sponsoring, harboring, fostering, and launching terrorism. It tops the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, and it richly deserves its gold medal.-National Review 19 February
http://www.iranexper...s19february.htm

Reform excitement gives way to apathy as Iran readies to return to polls.- The wave of enthusiasm which swept thousands of reformists into office in Iran's first ever municipal polls four years ago has given way to voter apathy in the runup to fresh local elections later this month.-
AFP 19 February
http://www.iranexper...s19february.htm

U.S. Would Remove Iranian Opposition in Iraq.- The United States will "give no quarter" to the Iranian opposition based in Iraq if U.S. forces invade the country, a U.S. official said.-
Reuters 19 February
http://www.iranexper...n19february.htm

Extremism the sure winner from a US attack on Iraq: Iran.- In a wide-ranging attack on US policy, Iran warned the Security Council that an attack on Iraq would inevitably benefit extremism, especially if a US military commander were put in charge of an Islamic country.-AFP 18 February
http://www.iranexper...e18february.htm

Iran vows its nuclear program peaceful - ElBaradei.- The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said on Tuesday ahead of a visit to Iran that Tehran had assured him it wanted to show the world its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes only.-Reuters 18 February
http://www.iranexper...t18february.htm

Prominent reformist journalist detained in Iran.- A prominent pro-reform journalist who has described the hard-line establishment as dictatorial was detained at home Tuesday, according to his son.-Associated Press 18 February
http://www.iranexper...t18february.htm

Iranian MPs censure foreign minister over Iraqi visit.- Iranian MPs on Sunday censured Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi for holding talks last week with his Iraqi counterpart Naji Sabri as the United States threatens to oust President Saddam Hussein.-AFP 17 February
http://www.iranexper...s17february.htm

Oman, Iran call for all efforts to avoid war.- The Sultanate of Oman and Iran yesterday agreed on the need to deploy all efforts to avoid a US-led war on Iraq, Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, minister responsible for foreign affairs, said.-Times Of Oman 17 February
http://www.iranexper...n17february.htm

International Court of Justice set to hear case of Iran versus the United States.- The World Court here is scheduled on Monday to look into the case of Iran which has lodged a complaint against the United States over the destruction of oil rigs in the Persian Gulf in 1987 and 1988.-AFP 16 February
http://www.iranexper...s16february.htm

Iran urges US to hear voice of anti-war demonstrations.- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi Sunday urged the United States to hear the voice of anti-war demonstrators throughout the world calling for shift on the gear of war and pursuit of dialog and peace.-Xinhuanet 16 February
http://www.iranexper...r16february.htm

Iran Wants No Mass Destruction Arms in Middle East.- Iran said Sunday it wanted the Middle East to be completely free of weapons of mass destruction and accused Washington of applying double standards on the issue in the region.-Reuters 16 February
http://www.iranexper...s16february.htm

Revolution in Iran 'inspired' all Islamic movements.- Islamic movements all over the world have been inspired by the Iran revolution, according to speakers at a seminar on the 24th revolution's anniversary.-Dawn 16 February
http://www.iranexper...16february.html

Pakistani Prime Minister cancels trip to Iran.- Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has cancelled a planned trip to neighbouring Iran, state media announced Saturday.-AFP 16 February
http://www.iranexper...n16february.htm

Iran's Revolutionary Guards renew Rushdie death sentence.- Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have renewed a call to kill Salman Rushdie, whom Iran condemned to death 14 years ago for allegedly insulting Islam in a prize-winning novel.-Associated Press 15 February
http://www.iranexper...s15february.htm

Russian nuclear energy official to visit Iran.-Russian Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Andrei Malishov is to arrive in Tehran on Sunday to discuss ways of broadening bilateral ties.-
Iran News Wire 14 February
http://www.iranexper...a14february.htm

Iran's nuclear programme no immediate threat.- Iran thrust itself back into the "axis of evil" spotlight this week with a series of announcements detailing an ambitious nuclear energy programme, including the construction of a facility to enrich uranium.-Reuters 14 February
http://www.iranexper...r14february.htm

Young runaways find dark side to bright lights of Tehran.- When 13-year-old Elaheh ran away from her mentally ill mother and drug addict father, she headed straight for the bright lights of the Iranian capital, Tehran.-AFP 14 February
http://www.iranexper...n14february.htm

Official Baku Is Waiting for Iran’s Khatami.- necessity to unite the South Azerbaijan! An official visit of Iranian president Mohammed Khatemi to Baku will be organized in March.-
Baku Today 13 February
http://www.iranexper...u13february.htm

Iran criticises backers of US military buildup in Gulf.-
Iran's influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Wednesday criticised Gulf Arab neighbours which have granted facilities for the US military buildup against Iraq.-AFP 12 February
http://www.iranexper...p12february.htm

Iran's Khatami to visit Belarus this summer, barring Iraq war.-
Iran's President Mohammad Khatami hopes to visit Belarus this summer if the Iraq crisis does not obstruct his plans, his deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzade said.-AFP 12 February
http://www.iranexper...s12february.htm

Neighbors / Iran will be one of the winners of the war.-
Last week's exchange of smiles and handshakes between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi were a source of gnashed teeth in Washington.-Haaretz 12 February
http://www.iranexper...r12february.htm

Iran Cracks Down on Valentine's Day.-
That's the word from Iranian police, who have ordered shops to remove heart-and-flower decorations and have confiscated other symbols of what religious authorities consider a decadent, Western event - Valentine's Day.-Associated Press 12 February
http://www.iranexper...y12february.htm

India, Iran to sign protocol on terror Joint Working Group (JWG).-
India and Iran are expected to sign a protocol on setting up a Joint Working Group (JWG) on terrorism and security during the on-going visit of Indian Home Secretary N. Gopalaswami to Tehran.-Indian Express 11 February
http://www.iranexper...g11february.htm

Iranian regime secure, but "increasingly fragile": CIA chief.-
The Iranian regime is secure but "increasingly fragile" and Washington is closely monitoring a looming showdown between Iran's reformers and conservatives, CIA director George Tenet said.-AFP 11 February
http://www.iranexper...f11february.htm

Some in Iran envision a democratic Islam.-
The liveliest debate about the relationship between Islam and democracy is going on inside a theocracy. Inside Iran. This debate matters as America prepares to go to war with neighboring Iraq.-Philadelphia Inquirer 11 February
http://www.iranexper...m11february.htm

Iran's president warns U.S. against trying to oust Islamic rulers.- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami warned the United States on Tuesday not to use Iran's domestic troubles to try to oust its Islamic rulers.-Knight Ridder 11 February
http://www.iranexper...c11february.htm

International: Pragmatism, the flavour of the day;
Iran, the EU and America.- Are the reformists being outflanked, even on relations with America? DURING a three-day trip to Iran this week, Chris Patten, the EU's commissioner for external relations, hobnobbed with the reformists of President Muhammad Khatami's movement--and also with the conservatives who have all but derailed the movement.-Economist 11 February
http://www.iranexper...m11february.htm

Don't count on new Iran revolution.-
Twenty-four years after the Feb 1, 1979 revolution that brought the ayatollahs to power in Iran, the oil-rich country is being torn by political infighting. We examine Iran's political and economic future, and the implications for the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.-By William Choong Straits Times 11 February
http://www.iranexper...n10february.htm

Iran's opposition to war does not amount to support for Saddam.-
Iran's opposition to a US strike on Iraq does not mean that Tehran supports Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, President Mohammad Khatami said.-Iran News Wire 10 February
http://www.iranexper...r10february.htm

Khatami says Iran mines uranium for nuclear plant.-
President Mohammad Khatami announced on Sunday that Iran had discovered and extracted uranium to produce nuclear energy, and insisted its nuclear power programme was strictly for civilian use.-Reuters 9 February
http://www.iranexper...um9february.htm

[Lazarus Long]

http://www.iranexper...sador8march.htm
Iran Ambassador To Russia:Ties Are Progressing Well
8 March Dow Jone

Russo-Iranian relations are making good progress and have fair prospects, Iran's Ambassador to Moscow, Gholam Reza Shafei said.

As he spoke in connection with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's upcoming visit to Teheran, Ambassador Shafei said the two sides were holding intensive dialog on a broad range of cooperative world issues.

He recalled that Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi had visited Moscow less than a year earlier and that Ivanov was going to Teheran on a return visit, according to the report.

Moscow and Teheran have a broad, diverse field for cooperation, including regional security, Ambassador Shafei said. He singled out the situation around Iraq and Afghanistan, the Caspian Sea problem, the problems of Caucasus and other parts of Asia as the priority areas for contacts.

Ambassador Shafei reiterated the Iranian position that the U.N. must have a key role in the settling of crises. Both Iran and Russia have warned the international community that one-sided approaches are unreasonable, he said.

[Lazarus Long]

http://www.iranexper...anmps7march.htm

Iranian MPs approve move for free elections
7 March Financial Times

Iran's pro-reform parliament has passed a controversial bill to guarantee free parliamentary elections, a decision that threatens to deepen tensions between the country's reformist and conservative camps.

The approval on Wednesday came a day after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is closely affiliated with the conservatives, supported the vetting of political candidates to ensure their loyalty to the clerical regime.

He said that only "pious people" could take control over state bodies.

The bill passed by parliament was proposed by President Mohammad Khatami, a moderate, last September and received strong support in parliament.

It removed the "approbatory supervision" mechanism carried out by the Guardian Council, the hardline constitutional watchdog.

Under this mechanism, candidates' religious beliefs and commitment to the Islamic system and to the supreme leader must be "proved".

However, parliament decided that "expressing loyalty to the constitution" was sufficient for candidates.

The hardline Experts Assembly, composed of powerful clerics responsible for supervising the leader's performance, described "approbatory supervision" as the "guardian" of the system and insisted it continue.

Another controversial bill proposed by Mr Khatami will soon be discussed in parliament. Under this bill, presidential powers would be increased to safeguard the constitution and stop the conservative judiciary from dealing with political activists and closing newspapers.

President Khatami has threatened to put the twin bills to a referendum should the Guardian Council reject them, as is expected, or to resign. Holding a referendum would not be easy for reformists, as hardliners claim that it requires permission from the supreme leader and the Guardian Council.

Analysts expect the political atmosphere to become more radical when the options for embattled reformists are narrowed.

Reformists now see the bills as more vital to their survival after Iranians, unhappy with the slow pace of reforms, ignored their call to turn out for municipal elections last Friday.

Although reformists are proud of their public support, they fear their call for a referendum might not be backed by Iranians who showed signs of civil disobedience by not participating in last week's elections in big cities. In Tehran, the voter turnout was only 12 per cent, the lowest since the 1979 revolution. President Khatami called it an "alarm bell" for "the future of the Islamic revolution".

Issa Saharkhiz, a reformist commentator, said in a website analysis that the municipal elections were an "unofficial referendum", showing people's dissatisfaction over the lack of reforms

[Lazarus Long]

http://www.iranexper...s19february.htm
The Willful Blindness of those Who Will Not See
19 February By Michael Ledeen National Review

Iran holds all the records for sponsoring, harboring, fostering, and launching terrorism. It tops the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, and it richly deserves its gold medal. When the Ayatollah Khomeini toppled the shah in 1979, he already had a terrorist organization in place: the Revolutionary Guards, who had been trained by the Middle East's master terrorist, Yasser Arafat. From that solid base, Iranian-sponsored terrorism metastasized, and now includes most all the leading elements of the terrorist galaxy, from Islamic Jihad to Hamas, al Qaeda, and, of course, Hezbollah, the worst of them all, and a direct creation of the Iranian regime itself.

There is no dispute over Iran's preeminent role, even among those experts who shrink from its consequences. Yet Western governments, even the Bush administration, have steadfastly refused to do the one thing that the facts demand: design and conduct a policy to help the Iranian people fulfill their desire for freedom, and bring down the murderous regime in Tehran. Unlike the war against Iraq, it doesn't require bombs or bullets, only the usual kind of financial and moral support we have given to so many freedom fighters in the past.

No one even wants to think about it. Indeed, the European Union has been busily trying to normalize trade relations with Iran, and its "foreign minister," Chris Patten, recently made warm gurgly sounds after meeting with Iranian parliamentarians who regaled him with stories of good government in the Islamic Republic. Or so he thought; in reality he was talking to imposters pretending to be elected deputies, and they had a god laugh afterwards at the gullibility of their celebrated interlocutor.

The United States is not free of similar impulses to appease the mullahs, and the Department of State is, of course, the headquarters for those who want to have better relations with our prime terrorist enemies. Were it not for President Bush's clear-eyed understanding of the true nature of the Tehran regime, we would no doubt have arranged a détente, in keeping with the vision of Policy Planning Director Richard Haass, who considers appeasing Iran and working out a deal with its tyrants an "historic opportunity." Not even the president's repeated denunciations of the Iranian regime have convinced Haass and such cohorts as Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage, who last Friday inexplicably proclaimed Iran a "democracy." Somebody ought to make him memorize the words of the (appointed) Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, less than two weeks ago: "Today, those [in Iran] who spread slogans such as reform, liberty, democracy [and] human rights ... are fighting religion." Khamenei termed such ideas "demonic and colonialist."

That a famously tough-minded man like Armitage would buy into the fantastic notion that the Iranian clerical fascist dictatorship is somehow democratic is a breathtaking example of Western leaders' search for reasons to avoid coming to grips with Iran, even though they know they should do everything possible to liberate it. The most common excuse they give for their inaction is their belief that Iran will take care of itself, that the Iranian people — whose contempt for the regime is manifest — will eventually rise up and overthrow the mullahcracy. It's their country, after all, so why should we take the political risks involved?

It's a legitimate question, to which the proper response is another question: Why are the Iranian people less worthy of our support than the Yugoslavs under Milosevic or the Philipinoes under Marcos's two rotten regimes that did not threaten our national security, were not racing hell-bent to develop weapons of mass destruction, and did not harbor Osama bin Laden, his family, and his followers?

The current paralysis is eerily similar to the one that gripped Jimmy Carter's administration in 1979, as the fall of the shah became ever more likely. Then, too, it seemed imperative for us to act. Then, as today, the actions required were political, not military: We should have encouraged the shah to fight for his throne. Instead, we wrapped ourselves in the mantle of political correctness, warned him about the use of violence, insisted that his troops use rubber bullets, demanded that he permit freedom of assembly, and mumbled reassuring words about the Ayatollah Khomeini. Andrew Young remarked that he was, after all, "a religious man."

Then, as today, we told ourselves that it was their country, not ours, that the shah was fully capable of acting, and that he undoubtedly would. Why should we take the political risks involved in vigorously supporting him? In one of those fascinating historical moments when two sides are looking into opposite sides of the same distorted mirror, the shah reasoned that Iran was a major American concern, that if we wished to save him we certainly would, and if we wished him to leave he could not possibly resist. Why should he get his hands dirty by fighting the mobs in the streets? He was overthrown, we suffered a monumental setback, radical jihadism took root, and the Iranian people began 24 years of misery.

No doubt there are some events that occur because great historical forces have been unleashed, and men are powerless to reverse the tide. But these are very rare. For the most part, things happen because leaders and other brave people make them happen. The frightening facts about Iran, the odious nature of its regime, and the brave resistance of the Iranian people all cry out for Western action. While it is possible that the Iranians may eventually rid themselves of their oppressive clerics, it is also possible that the regime will prevail. Repression works, tyrannies endure, and a regime that is willing to kill anyone who challenges it — and the mullahs have not shown any unwillingness to kill, torture, and intimidate — can last a very long time. But both the Iranian people and the mullahs believe that American action would change the balance of power, and liberate the country.

The liberation of Iran would be the greatest imaginable triumph in the war against terrorism, as well as the fulfillment of America's mission to support freedom fighters against their tyrants. As in the war against Iraq, we have already waited far too long to get on with it.

[Lazarus Long]

http://www.iranexper...rally8march.htm
Iran Women Rally To Demand Equal Rights
8 March Associated Press

Hundreds of Iranian women marked International Women's Day on Saturday with a demonstration demanding equal social and political rights to men, a first in this conservative male-dominated country since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The women, wearing the headscarves and long coats required by law, and a small group of men held a rally in a central Tehran park. Watching them was a large contingent of police - including some 400 women who in January became the first females to undergo training to be officers since 1979. "Half of the votes cast in favor of lawmakers were by women. How can you fail to recognize and support the rights of your wives, mothers and sisters? Why aren't women given top managerial or ministerial posts?" activist Zohreh Arzani asked the gathering?

In the crowd, some women held up signs against violence by men - and against a war on Iraq.

Women have been strong supporters of Iran's reform movement seeking to change the Islamic government's tight social and political restrictions. While the reformist-dominated parliament lifted a ban on unmarried women studying abroad, other bills supporting women's rights have been rejected by the hard-line Guardian Council, which must approve all legislation before it becomes law.

Under the strict form of Islamic law used in Iran, a woman needs her husband's permission to work or travel abroad. A man's court testimony is considered twice as important as a woman's. Men can keep four spouses at once, a right not granted to women.

And while Iranian men can divorce almost at will, a woman seeking a divorce must go through a long legal battle and often relinquish rights in return for divorce.

"How can we celebrate this day when our women are not entitled to choose their husbands, are not allowed to demand divorce and get just half the blood money a man gets?" protest organizer Noushin Ahmadi said, referring to the practice of giving the family of a female murder victim about half the average compensation paid to a male victim's relatives.

Speakers said the rally, organized by the non-governmental Women's Cultural Center, aimed to "protest discrimination against women."

In her speech, Arzani deplored Iran's failure to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

"Why has even the reformist-dominated parliament failed to debate and approve the convention?" Arzani asked amid the shrill whistles of girls at the rally.

Iran's senior clerics in Qom, the country's main center of Islamic learning, have rejected the convention as un-Islamic.

Despite being restricted from the nation's highest political posts, Iranian women - 31.1 million of the nation's 66 million population - enjoy greater freedoms and political rights than women in most neighboring Gulf Arab states, including the right to vote and hold public office.

Those freedoms came into practice with the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, who appointed a woman as vice president. Other women have been appointed to top government posts, but not Cabinet positions.

Prominent female writer Shirin Ebadi said Iranian women wanted the "full rights of life" before top government posts.

Speakers at Saturday's rally warned that self-immolation by women was on the rise due to discrimination against women, particularly in rural areas. No official figures are available on self-immolation.

[Lazarus Long]

U.S. Concerned about Iran Nukes

WASHINGTON (March 10) - Iran now has hundreds of centrifuges to produce enriched uranium and is moving closer to building a nuclear weapon than international authorities had previously believed.

''We have seen this week Iran has got a more aggressive nuclear program than the (International Atomic Energy Agency) thought it had,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday on CNN. He used the reports to bolster the Bush administration's case against Iraq.

''It shows you how a determined nation that has the intent to develop a nuclear weapon can keep that development process secret from inspectors and outsiders, if they really are determined to do it, and we know that Saddam Hussein has not lost his intent,'' Powell said.

He did not answer directly when asked how close Iran is to building a bomb.

Time magazine reported Sunday that a nuclear power facility at Natanz in Iran is closer to enriching uranium than previously thought. The magazine said the plant has hundreds of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium that could be used in advanced nuclear weapons.

Israel destroyed an Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981, and is deeply alarmed by the development in Iran, Time reported.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice sidestepped a question about whether Israel would be justified in attacking the Iranian plant.

''I'm not going to speculate on what might be the right thing here,'' Rice said. ''What is the right thing is for the international community to get serious about the problems of proliferation, to recognize that there are states that are determined to try and acquire weapons of mass destruction, to deny them the means.''

AP-NY-03-10-03 0907EST

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

[Lazarus Long]

http://www.iranexper...ocket8april.htm

Teen killed when third stray rocket hits Iran
8 April Associated Press

Iran reacted angrily Tuesday after a stray rocket struck its territory near the Iraqi border, killing an Iranian teenager.

It was the third time Iranian territory has been hit by a rocket since U.S.-led troops went to war in Iraq.

The rocket had "apparently been fired by U.S.-led coalition planes," said Mohammad Kianoush-Rad, who represents Ahvaz, capital of Khuzestan province, in the Iranian parliament. He said it landed outside Abadan, a port city about 30 miles east of the Iraqi city of Basra.

A 13-year-old boy was killed by the explosion, which left a 5-foot-deep crater in the road, state-run Tehran television said. Mohammad Sohofi, a top government official, issued a sharp condemnation and said authorities were treating the case very seriously.

"The aggressor forces are responsible for violating Iran's air space and inflicting human and property losses," Sohofi was quoted as saying in the television report. Pentagon spokesmen said they had no immediate information about Iran's claim.

The Iranian government reacted strongly when stray missiles fired by both Iraq and coalition forces landed in Iranian territory on March 21 and 22, summoning the Iraqi charge d'affaires and the British and Swiss ambassadors to protest.

The first rocket fired by U.S.-led coalition planes struck an Oil Ministry building in Abadan on March 21, injuring two people. Another missile, which Iran said was fired by Iraq, landed a day later in Sardasht, western Iran. No one was hurt.

The State Department assured Iran after the March 21 rocket incident that Washington was investigating. Iran fought an eight-year war against Iraq in the 1980s and strongly opposes Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But it also opposes the U.S.-led war, fearing it could give Washington a free hand in post-Saddam Iraq and leave Iran encircled by pro-American countries.

[Lazarus Long]

http://www.iranexper...yria10april.htm

Straw seeks to engage Iran and Syria
10 April Reuters

Britain says it is continuing to engage with Iraq's neighbours Syria and Iran, a message that cut across hardline warnings to both states from hawks in Washington.

"It is important to maintain the dialogue with both these countries," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told parliament on Thursday. "Syria and Iran now have the chance to play their part in building a better future for Iraq."

Straw said Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien would visit both countries shortly.

His statement jarred with those of hawkish U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who warned Syria and Iran last month not to meddle in the Iraq war and said on Wednesday that the United States had evidence Damascus might be helping relatives and supporters of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to flee. Straw, who himself will visit the Gulf next week, said he had maintained a dialogue with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi throughout the Iraq conflict.

"As for Syria, we hope that they will now take the opportunity to make a decisive break with the policies of the past and so contribute to a better future for the entire region," he said.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech on Wednesday that the United States must "do whatever it takes" to defeat terrorism and must confront nations that support it. Iran and Syria are among seven nations listed by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism.

KEY U.N. ROLE

Straw insisted that both Britain and the U.S. would seek new United Nations resolutions to affirm Iraq's borders, ensure fast humanitarian aid and endorse a postwar administration.

"We...support the early formation of an Iraqi interim authority which progressively will assume the functions of government," he said. "The coalition will need to work with the U.N. in establishing this body."

Apparently unsatisfied by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair's pledge that the U.N. would play a "vital role" in post-war Iraq, Europe's anti-war leaders France, Germany and Russia are holding a summit in St Petersburg at the weekend to discuss their next moves. Critics fear an interim Iraqi government will be dominated by U.S. officials and U.S.-groomed Iraqi exiles, giving Washington undue influence.

"It is our guiding principle that as soon as possible Iraq should be governed by the Iraqi people themselves," Straw said.

British troops are trying to keep the peace in Iraq's second city, Basra. Straw said his government was actively considering sending police advisers to help them.

[Lazarus Long]

http://story.news.ya...a_rafsanjani_dc
Iran's Rafsanjani Suggests U.S. Ties Be Put to Vote
1 hour, 34 minutes ago World - Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has suggested a referendum could be held on resuming ties with the United States, Iran's arch-foe, the official IRNA news agency said on Saturday.

Rafsanjani, who heads Iran's top conservative arbitration body, proposed two ways to resolve the standoff with Washington which severed relations with Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when radical students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

"One solution is to hold a referendum, provided that parliament and the Supreme Leader approve it," he said in remarks published in the periodical Rahbord.

"The other solution is that the problem is referred to us, the Expediency Council, to decide."

Rafsanjani's comments seemed to reflect concern in Iran's conservative clerical establishment that the U.S. government, fresh from its success in overthrowing Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in Iraq (news - web sites), could intensify pressure for change in Iran, which is on its list of rogue countries sponsoring terrorism.

"Iranian officials have adopted a softer approach after the fall of Saddam because they are concerned about U.S. intentions," political analyst Saeed Leylaz told Reuters.

Iranian reformists rallied around President Mohammad Khatami have in the past argued in favor of resuming normal relations with the United States. But Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has a final say on all state matters, has always rejected it and frequently refers to Washington as "the Great Satan."

Rafsanjani, who heads the Expediency Council, said all doors were not closed to restoring relations with Washington.

"One idea is that America is a danger to us and we should distance ourselves from it, but it is more a political ...notion than a religious mandate...Our ideology is flexible," he said.

Leylaz noted it was the first time that such a referendum was proposed by the hard-liners, "so they see it as a legitimate way to resolve the problem with America."

[Lazarus Long]

I brought this thread out of mothballs because global events are about to make many aspects of what has concerned me for some time become more obvious. I read the following satirical "Letter to the Ayatollah" recently and the acerbic taste was as tangy as a sweet tart so I decided to share. It is just too delicious not to.

The irony is that in the tradition of J. Swift it has a very double-edged tone that some might find uncomfortable but it is time to realize that to cook over the flames you must be able to stand the heat. It illustrates why I for one, think many of our policies are short sighted and counter productive to our nation's (United States) long term valid interests but also why they are having the opposite effect from their stated purpose which is ostensibly claimed to be to reduce the global proliferation of WMD's.

Just wanting to do the right thing isn't enough, being righteous about our "policy" won't be sufficient to create a legitimate reduction in growing global instability, and to steal a page from my opponents; it is high time for a reality check and more than a little true real politik: the kind that remembers we must declare what the goals ARE and find a pragmatic common cause domestically or we will be unable to sustain the course.

There is a lot about Iran in the news lately and I have not posted it but I suggest that soon I might because events are moving to where the discussion is too important to ignore.


LL/kxs

http://www.yellowtim...order=0&thold=0
''Dear Ayatollah''
Printed on Tuesday, June 24, 2003 @ 00:01:22 CDT
By Gabriel Ash
YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)

(YellowTimes.org) – Dear Ayatollah Ali Khameini,

You do not know me, yet nothing I know about you makes me think that I would like you if we met. Neverthless, we do have some common concerns. I therefore decided to give you some comfort and advice.

The White House is giving you grief lately. Let me assure you that you are not alone. The White House is giving grief to the great majority of the human race (and quite a few other species). Hang in there!

On the matter of nuclear buildup, I must reluctantly admit that I understand you. I know you are racing toward The Bomb, despite your denials. I don't like it at all. But you would be insane if you didn't.

Over there to your west, you've got Israel, a nuclear power with imperial ambitions and a readiness with ferocious nonchalance to make meatloaf out of civilians (don't take my word for it; ask your friends in Lebanon). Israel's nuclear suitcase is in the hands of generals suffering from periodic bouts of paranoid schizophrenia. Symptoms include delusions that Adolf Hitler hides in Gaza disguised as a ten year old, fears that Secretary of State Colin Powell is trying to implant control chips in the backs of their necks, and an unshakable belief that God is an invisible real estate broker who communicates with them by telepathy.

As if that nuclear lunatic asylum in Palestine weren't enough, you've just won a new neighbor across the desert, the United States. Your new neighbor happens to be the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons. The U.S. vaporized two Japanese cities -- Nagasaki and Hiroshima -- for the hell of it. Japan had already communicated that it was ready to surrender. Imagine what such a country would be ready to do with nuclear weapons if victory actually depended on it.

Just to add to the general clarity, the current administration officially announced that it might use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries in a conventional war. And the U.S. Congress has just authorized renewed development of small, tactical nuclear devices. A couple of bombs will protect you from Paul Wolfowitz and Shaul Mofaz better than all the non-proliferation treaties in the world -- treaties are only as good as the credibility of the countries that sign them.

If you still have doubts, ask yourself who's doing better today, the disarmed Saddam, who did what he was told by the U.N. and scrapped his nuclear program, or that wacko survivalist in North Korea, who goes to sleep every night with an armed missile under his pillow.

I hope you don't share the sentiment of your poetically inclined colleague in India that nuclear weapons enhance your virility. I am sure that this kind of vulgar chest thumping is beneath you. I hope you agree with me that we would be better off in a world without nuclear weapons. But that isn't an option. As long as the U.S. is committed to keeping its arsenal and even developing new weapons, a few bombs in your possession will go a long way toward keeping the Sharon-Wolfowitz axis-of-evil at bay.

I have some advice for you: while you go about building that big nuclear stick, speak softly. The shouting match you engage in against the United States may feel good, but it isn't helping you.

Give an interview to Fox News. Talk about how you love rodeo. Reveal that you secretly own a full collection of Bette Davis B&W movies. Say how much you are anxious to be invited to a George Bush barbecue. Don't worry. No matter how conciliatory you sound, you will still be verbally abused by the Tasmanian Devils who make policy at the Pentagon. They can't help it.

What's in it for you? The U.S. is an awesome superpower. No army can deter it. Wolfowitz, Perle and Rumsfeld aren't afraid of you, no matter what you do. Nuclear power helps a lot, but the only power that the U.S. has learned to fear over the years is people power, a power Washington think tanks are constitutionally unable to fathom. This is the power that defeated the U.S. in Vietnam. This is the power that makes George Bush pull his hair in frustration in Palestine. Iran's best deterrent against the U.S. is the unity and determination of the people. You want that power behind you, but you won't have it unless Iranians are convinced that the U.S. is the bully. People power cannot be coerced. So tone down your rhetoric and let the Pentagon display its fangs.

Speaking about people power, there's something else we need to discuss. You have accused the U.S. of fomenting massive demonstrations against you in the last few weeks. Now, I am very much opposed to CIA induced coups of the sort that did Mossadegh in in 1953. I am also against "regime change" by tomahawk missiles. But helping students demonstrate? You lost me. How exactly did the U.S. help the demonstrators? By parachuting placards? I'm afraid you, too, are coming down with paranoia.

The students of Tehran didn't take to the streets because of U.S. interference. They took to the streets because of you. You fancy yourself as Iran's leader. But you and your Council of Guardians are not leading Iran; you are standing in Iran's way. In 1979, you threw off the tyranny that the U.S. had imposed on you 23 years earlier. And then you replaced it with a new tyranny. That, your betrayal of the revolution, is what fuels the discontent of the people. The people of Iran are motivated by the love of freedom, not by the empty rhetoric of Emperor Bush.

You may find it expedient to suggest that freedom is an American, Western import. This is the one point of agreement between you and the White House; but you are both wrong. Freedom isn't Western. It is Western and Eastern and Southern and Northern; it is universal; it comes from within each of us. Freedom is equally at home, or rather equally ill at ease, in every religion, every belief system, and every nationality. Pretend as it may, the U.S. cannot export freedom. It can only export stuff like Coca Cola. Coke may be advertised as freedom, but it isn't. It's a silly, carbonated drink. You know very well what freedom is. Freedom is not having to take orders from you. Freedom is not being afraid of your goons. That's what the students in Tehran want.

The U.S. has a vision for Iran. It is a vision of a vast market that can be tapped, natural resources that can be plundered, routes of control connecting Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia that can be secured for the operation of American hegemony, and a docile population that can be safely ignored or handled by strongmen. If you fear that vision, you should pay attention. Iran's ability to frustrate U.S. designs to reduce it to an American colony depends on the power of these students, the power of the Iranian people. If you want to help, move out of their way. By obstructing the pull of democracy, you and the clerical establishment, not the students, will be preparing the ground for a new U.S. colonial age in Iran. You think I'm crazy? Check your western border. What was the contribution of that great nationalist Saddam Hussein to the cause of Arab freedom?

But if you insist on getting even with the U.S. for supporting Iranian dissidents, I think I know the perfect revenge for you.

America, too, like Iran, is full of dissidents. Like their sisters and brothers in Tehran, American dissidents want freedom, democracy, accountability, transparency, honest elections, tearing down the police state, etc. They are a thorn in the side of the White House just as the students demonstrating in Tehran are a thorn in your side. Why not give us some help?

[Gabriel Ash was born in Romania and grew up in Israel. He is an unabashed "optimist." He writes his columns because the pen is sometimes mightier than the sword - and sometimes not. He lives in the United States.]

Gabriel Ash encourages your comments: gash@YellowTimes.org

YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication. YellowTimes.org encourages its material to be reproduced, reprinted, or broadcast provided that any such reproduction identifies the original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org. Internet web links to http://www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated.

[David]

As an Australian, I resent the use of the Tasmanian Devil (a ferociouse, little black and white furred scavenger from, you guessed it, Tasmania!) in your description of policy makers in the Pentagon. What an insult to to Tas!

[Lazarus Long]

This article from the New Scientist is from an Iranian that coincidentally is addressing the same issue as this thread but it is one that can overlap into our discussions on religions and technocratic progress. It is an interesting interview and worth the read.

http://www.newscient...LEFP?id=ns24081

Come the revolution

Only in a few countries could a philosopher of science be seen as an enemy of the state. Abdolkarim Soroush, one of Iran's best-known intellectuals, argues that science cannot progress under totalitarian regimes. His greatest "crime" is to suggest that this is a legitimate Islamic view. After six years in exile, Soroush bravely returned to Iran last week. Ehsan Masood spoke to him on the eve of his departure

Why are you going back to Iran?

I have been away for six years. I need to go back to sort out various things and visit my students, family and friends. Some of my closest friends have been arrested. Before I left I set up an independent institute for epistemological research, which I have discovered was closed down last month. The building has been sealed off. I need to find out what happened.

How risky will this visit be in terms of your personal safety?

It is difficult to say. My friends tell me I am taking a risk. But I need to go.

President Mohammad Khatami is also a personal friend of yours. Will you meet him?

I avoid him and he avoids me. That is better for both of us.

Many of your students are taking to the streets in Iran calling for more freedoms. Do you think they will succeed?

These protests are coming entirely from within. They are not because of foreign provocation. Iran has had an explosion in its university population since the revolution, when there were just 200,000 students. Today there are 2 million. They and their families want greater freedoms and I believe the end result will be a reduction in the power of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, more power to parliament, and greater academic freedom.

How has your experience in Iran influenced your views about science?

My experience in Iran teaches me that a minimum amount of freedom is necessary for the advancement of science, for the advancement of thought. Research cannot flourish if you cannot communicate with your fellow scientists; if you cannot explain your ideas freely, or have to hide part of them lest you be arrested.

I am communicating with you now. We can freely chat and freely exchange information. Science is a child of these kinds of conditions. If I hide something from you and you hide things from me, and both of us are obliged to read between the lines, these are not ideal conditions for research to progress.

Yet science has done well under totalitarian regimes in China and the former Soviet Union, and even under some fairly unpleasant governments during Islam's "golden age of science" between the 9th and 13th centuries...

Let me make a distinction between empirical research and thinking per se. Thinking needs a free environment. Empirical research, where you have a well-defined project with official approval, can indeed flourish even under a totalitarian regime, because scientists can still meet other scientists, read the literature and publish. But it is impossible to advance new theories - particularly in the social sciences - when you are under the influence of a particular view, or under the pressure of a particular dogma.

And I disagree with you about Islam's golden age. Totalitarianism is absolutely a modern phenomenon. In the past, kings were despots but they were not totalitarian. They weren't able to put their hands on science and philosophy. There was no widespread plan to limit scientists, philosophers and other academics. If there were restrictions, they came from religion or fellow philosophers rather than the political system.

You started your professional life as a chemist. Why did you switch to history and philosophy of science?

While still in Iran, I became fascinated with a whole series of problems to do with the nature of science. This happened when I took private tuition in the philosophy of Islamic metaphysics and my teacher and I would often discuss issues such as the nature of theories, the nature of observation and experimental evidence. Neither of us was ever satisfied that we had properly understood these issues, but then neither of us knew that there existed a branch of knowledge called philosophy of science. In fact, philosophy of modern science was unknown in Iran at the time. I didn't find out about it until I came to the UK in 1973.

Are you saying there was no teaching or research in philosophy of modern science in Iran before the Islamic revolution of 1979?

Yes. I was the first person to introduce this subject in Iranian universities. I arranged for academics to be trained and books to be translated and written. Prior to the revolution, philosophy courses at Tehran University concentrated on figures such as Kant, Hume and Heidegger. There was no teaching of the works of modern analytical philosophers such as Karl Popper and Bertrand Russell. This may have been because our heads of department were mostly educated in Germany and France - French is Iran's second language - and were generally weak in English.

You were a supporter of the 1979 revolution...

Yes. Everybody was a supporter. We thought that there was no other way to get rid of the hated regime of the shah and the insecurity that came with it.

Scientific revolutions and political revolutions are similar in many ways. You cannot plan them, they just happen, and you become wiser after the event. After the revolution there was no one dominant view. There were secular people, moderate Muslims, radical Muslims and so on. Revolutions tend to result in totalitarianism. People like me were in it to make it more moderate.

After the shah was overthrown, you returned to Iran. How did you attract the attention of Ayatollah Khomeini?

I met Ayatollah Khomeini when he was in exile in Paris during the 1970s. I later discovered from some of his intimate friends that he had read and liked one of my books on the philosophy of Islamic metaphysics. Khomeini himself had taught metaphysics. I was also known for another book I had written criticising Marxism - considered a serious threat in Iran at the time - and for another on ethics and science. You could say I was a public figure in Iran.

After the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini set up what he called the Advisory Council for the Cultural Revolution to revise the curricula in the universities. I was invited to become one of the council's seven members and I served on it for four years. It was here that I was given the opportunity to introduce philosophy of modern science in universities.

How did the students take to it?

The students became very excited. I myself taught the subject for more than 10 years and set up a research faculty at Tehran University. Today, I am happy to say that history and philosophy of science is flourishing in Iran. There are many professors and books are constantly being published.

How did you fall out with the authorities?

Around 1990, I published a series of seven articles in a popular cultural magazine called Kyan. The magazine is part of the country's biggest-selling newspaper group. The articles went under the title "The expansion and contraction of religious knowledge". In these articles, I defined a branch of knowledge called religious knowledge and tried to explain it using the principles of philosophy of natural and social sciences. These articles rapidly became quite controversial. The ayatollahs [Shiite Muslim religious leaders], in particular, became very sensitive. Some 10 books have since been written in response to my series.

What did you write that got the ayatollahs so inflamed?

They didn't like the idea that interpretations of religious knowledge can change over time, or that religious knowledge can be understood in its historical context. They thought I was taking away the sacredness of religion and making it dependent on human understanding.

But as the controversy grew, I was happy to see these ideas debated in the public media. The original articles were later published in a 700-page book, and I found that I was beginning to attract quite a following. My classrooms became overcrowded and my books were selling very, very well. Books on philosophy usually sell between 2000 and 3000 copies. Some of my books sold more than 50,000. This made the politicians and clergy very sensitive as I was seen to be undermining their exclusive position. I started coming under restrictions.

What kinds of restrictions?

Vigilante groups would stop me from speaking in public. I was often attacked and beaten. I found that I no longer had a job. No one would employ me. No one would publish my work. Invitations to speak stopped coming. The magazine where my original series of articles appeared was closed down. I was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence and told very explicitly that the authorities did not like me any more and did not want me to feel secure in the country.

To what degree do you think research in Muslim countries should be regulated?

When I was on the Advisory Council for the Cultural Revolution, the clerics thought there was an excessive leftist influence on the social sciences and wanted us to purge them of this. I always argued that this would not work because scientists never accept commands from anybody.

But in a country like Iran, surely religion will always guide what research you can do?

There are always barriers to science. Some come from the nature of the research itself, and these have to be recognised and acknowledged. Others come from outside, and these need to be minimised or eliminated. If you are asked to confirm predetermined conclusions to further a social, political or religious cause, that has to be resisted. If you believe through your religion that you know the answer to a particular issue, then embarking on research to find the answer seems to be a contradiction.

You are sometimes described as Islam's Martin Luther, the 16th-century Christian reformer. Are you?

I do not think I am. My main job is to offer an alternative to the totalitarian view of Islam.

[Lazarus Long]

Iran has been in the news a lot. The "Road-map for Middle East Peace" has run into a dead end and Iran is being given a deadline to prove the negative that it is not guilty of pursuing a Nuclear Bomb.

When did they stop beating their wives anyway?

I will not get into the absurdity of this strategy as we threaten them to do what ever it takes to stop us from threatening them. It seems logic and reason have left the debate.

The following article is about a separate and relevant hypocrisy for those that have short memories let me explain.

The same people, used the same strategy with a related group to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan back during the Reagan Administration and the result was the creation of al Qaeda. Now I think in remembrance of today's sad anniversary that little note of historical congruity is worth remembering.

By now if any of you don't get the connection, I suggest you do your own research and as Yogi 'de' Berra said again, again; "sounds like deja vu all over again."

http://www.msnbc.com...120031132&cp1=1

Exile group irks State Department
Agency questions military’s tolerance of Iran dissidents in Iraq
By Glenn Kessler
THE WASHINGTON POST

Sept. 11 — The State Department has expressed concern to the Pentagon that the U.S. military appears to have allowed an Iraq-based Iranian opposition group to continue its activities against the Iranian government, including crossing into Iran to conduct attacks, despite an order from President Bush that the group be disarmed, administration officials said yesterday.

FOUR MONTHS AGO, after heavy pressure from the State Department, Bush ordered U.S. military forces to surround the group’s camps along the Iraq-Iran border and to force the group to give up its arms. But administration officials said the Pentagon has allowed the group to retain its weapons, come and go from the camps at will and use camp facilities to broadcast propaganda into Iran.

In the past week, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell wrote Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld about the matter after lower-level State Department officials were unable to get answers from their counterparts at the Pentagon, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Powell’s note cited reports that the group, known as the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK), enjoyed wide freedom to continue their operations. The note also mentioned that intercepts of Iranian government communications indicated the Mujaheddin continued to pose problems for the government in Tehran.

The State Department has officially designated the Mujaheddin as a terrorist group. The Mujaheddin has been campaigning for several decades to overthrow the Iranian government, and since 1987 it has been based in Iraq with the backing of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

“It’s unbelievable,” one State Department official said. “It’s a pretty cushy arrangement for a terrorist organization. But the Pentagon continues to see them as useful, and they seem to be playing a waiting game until the policy toward the MEK changes.”

[excerpts}

Washington Post Special Coverage.
http://www.washingto.../iraq/front.htm


Atomic agency meeting moves toward setting October deadline for Iran to prove it is not running secret nuclear weapons program.- Pressure grew on Iran Wednesday, as the U.N. atomic agency meeting moved closer to demanding that Tehran prove by October that it was not trying to make nuclear weapons.-Associated Press 10 September
http://www.iranexper...10september.htm

Tel Aviv worried about New Delhi's ties with Iran.- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised the issue of Iran-India relations with Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a senior Israeli source said.-Times of India 10 September
http://www.iranexper...10september.htm

Iran and the Bomb: Three Endings.- In the years since the end of the Cold War, the United States has put a strategic focus on containing countries that are capable of challenging its superpower status. But the events of Sept. 11, 2001, convinced the Americans that antiterrorism and antiproliferation are their highest priorities.-World Press Review 22 August
http://www.iranexper...omb22august.htm

Why Nuclear Weapons May be in Iran’s National Interests.- For more than two decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at odds with the foreign policy of the United States. The most significant clash between the two countries began shortly after the election of Premier Mohammed Mossadeq, who took power in Tehran in 1951.-Eurasia News 21 August
http://www.iranexper...ons21august.htm


WORLD OPINION
http://www.nytimes.c...nal/11OPIN.html
Foreign Views of U.S. Darken Since Sept. 11
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN

BERLIN, Sept. 10 — In the two years since Sept. 11, 2001, the view of the United States as a victim of terrorism that deserved the world's sympathy and support has given way to a widespread vision of America as an imperial power that has defied world opinion through unjustified and unilateral use of military force.

"A lot of people had sympathy for Americans around the time of 9/11, but that's changed," said Cathy Hearn, 31, a flight attendant from South Africa, expressing a view commonly heard in many countries. "They act like the big guy riding roughshod over everyone else."

In interviews by Times correspondents from Africa to Europe to Southeast Asia, one point emerged clearly: The war in Iraq has had a major impact on public opinion, which has moved generally from post-9/11 sympathy to post-Iraq antipathy, or at least to disappointment over what is seen as the sole superpower's inclination to act pre-emptively, without either persuasive reasons or United Nations approval.

To some degree, the resentment is centered on the person of President Bush, who is seen by many of those interviewed, at best, as an ineffective spokesman for American interests and, at worst, as a gunslinging cowboy knocking over international treaties and bent on controlling the world's oil, if not the entire world.

Foreign policy experts point to slowly developing fissures, born at the end of the cold war, that exploded into view in the debate leading up to the Iraq war. "I think the turnaround was last summer, when American policy moved ever more decisively toward war against Iraq," said Josef Joffe, co-editor of the German weekly Die Zeit. "That's what triggered the counteralliance of France and Germany and the enormous wave of hatred against the United States."

{excerpts}

**********************************************

Now please everyone don't act all surprised later when there is even far worse global outcry and upheaval because these folks try to go down a "road map to war" against Iran then when they moved without adequate result against Iraq; after the '04 election.

Good intentions are just inadequate justification for these strategies and tactics. To make matters worse when we talk of patrotism I am amazed to be forced to wonder just whose side the Administration is on but I have little doubt they define it as their own.

It is ironic to me that it appears the only thing we could be doing worse in terms of encouraging nuclear and WMD proliferation than we have done so far is to just start giving the weapons away...

Oh we have been doing that too [:o]