Iran

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Iran's Power Structure Baffles
Iran's Power Structure Baffles
Dec 31, 2007 1:25 PM CST

Iran's Power Structure Baffles

Clergy, bureaucrats, assorted elites wrestle for control

(Newser) - Since Iran’s autocratic shah fell in 1979, the question “Who runs Iran?” has stumped Western analysts. “Who doesn’t?” may be easier to grasp, reports the Los Angeles Times. Iran’s government has morphed into a free-for-all that includes the Shiite Muslim clergy, an entrenched bureaucracy, and...

Iraqis Mark Saddam's Death
Iraqis Mark Saddam's Death
Dec 30, 2007 9:51 AM CST

Iraqis Mark Saddam's Death

Heightened security greets first anniversary of Hussein's execution

(Newser) - "There is no life without the sun and no dignity without Saddam," read graffiti in the former Iraqi leader’s hometown of Tikrit today, the first anniversary of his execution. Small groups of mourners came to his tomb to praise Saddam Hussein’s accomplishments, reports Reuters, amid tightened...

Iran's Prez Under Fire for Rising Inflation

Even Ahmadinejad's own party finds fault with his policies

(Newser) - Skyrocketing inflation in Iran is sparking criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—even from within his own conservative party, the AP reports. Prices for food and homes have surged in recent months. Ahmadinejad, who ran in 2005 on promises to use oil revenue to boost the economy, blames his predecessors for...

Persepolis an Animated Triumph
Persepolis an Animated Triumph
NEW RELEASE
Dec 25, 2007 12:24 PM CST

Persepolis an Animated Triumph

Critics enthralled with 'landmark in animation'

(Newser) - Persepolis isn’t just a good animated movie. “It’s a small landmark in feature animation,” writes Nick Pinkerton of the Village Voice. Rendered with handcrafted charm in black and white, it tells the poignant-yet-funny story of a girl growing up amidst the Iranian revolution. But “bare...

Iran Plans 19 Nuke Plants
Iran Plans 19 Nuke Plants
Dec 24, 2007 11:47 AM CST

Iran Plans 19 Nuke Plants

Rejects calls to drop uranium enrichment

(Newser) - Iran has dismissed calls to drop uranium enrichment and plans 19 new nuclear power plants, Reuters reports. "US officials have talked of negotiations" on the condition that Iran stop the enrichment, "but we do not accept any preconditions for talks," Iran's Foreign Minister said today. The UN...

Israel, Feeling Isolated, 'More Likely' to Attack Iran

Latest NIE signals to some Israelis a US 'retreat'

(Newser) - Israel feels newly isolated and no less threatened by the US intelligence community's conclusion that Iran ended its weapons program in 2003, Newsweek reports. The atmosphere, says a former CIA official, makes it likely Israel will soon attack Iran. "Israel is not going to allow its nuclear monopoly to...

Gulf Arabs Enjoy Iranian Thaw
Gulf Arabs Enjoy Iranian Thaw
Dec 23, 2007 4:30 AM CST

Gulf Arabs Enjoy Iranian Thaw

Tehran gets trade partners; Arabs get peace of mind

(Newser) - Relations between the Sunni states in the Persian Gulf and the Shias in Iran were chilly before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, and they became even frostier afterward. But  now the worm is beginning to turn—and former rivals are making nice. Burdened with UN sanctions and needing...

Iran Cracks Down on the 'Un-Islamic'

Fear of regime change drives new policing of women's dress, media

(Newser) - Iran is engaged in its most serious crackdown on "un-Islamic" behavior in years, the Christian Science Monitor reports, with masked police rounding up and humiliating everyone from drug dealers to immodestly dressed women. But the impulse for the crackdown isn't Islamic conservatism, the paper concludes; it's a fear of...

Iran Still Sliding Iraq Arms: US
Iran Still Sliding Iraq Arms: US
Dec 17, 2007 6:41 PM CST

Iran Still Sliding Iraq Arms: US

Pentagon report says weapons, training still flowing across border

(Newser) - Stability in Iraq may be increasing, but the flow of arms and insurgents across its border with Iran has slowed little, reports the Wall Street Journal. A Pentagon report, to be presented to Congress tomorrow, will frame Iraq's overall security in a positive light, but again call into question how...

Russia Gives Iran Nuclear Fuel
Russia Gives Iran Nuclear Fuel
Dec 17, 2007 7:58 AM CST

Russia Gives Iran Nuclear Fuel

Says Tehran has promised not to develop weaponry

(Newser) - Russia delivered nuclear material to Iran yesterday, the BBC reports, ignoring Washington’s protests. Russia says it has assurances that the plutonium will only be used for the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which is being built by a Russian company, but the US says that spent uranium could be...

Iran Prez: US Hurts World Peace
Iran Prez: US Hurts World Peace
OPINION
Dec 14, 2007 4:03 PM CST

Iran Prez: US Hurts World Peace

'Unilateralism' tarnishes American prestige, Ahmadinejad writes

(Newser) - Writing in Newsweek, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the US has forsaken its “proper role in eliminating tyranny and violence” in the international arena, instead acting unilaterally to disrupt a peaceful world. Ahmadinejad says Iran has every right to develop nuclear fuel “for peaceful purposes,” and the...

Iran Resumed Nuke Program, Says Group

Marxists join neo-cons in chorus against intelligence reversal

(Newser) - An Iranian opposition group claims that the US intelligence agency's recent reversal on the status of Iran’s nuclear program was in error, the Wall Street Journal reports. The group, which first identified Iran's nuclear program in 2002, agrees that Iran closed down its major research facility in 2003, says...

CIA Recruited Iranian Officials to Defect

A 'handful' left in US plot to disrupt nuke program

(Newser) - The CIA plotted to recruit Iranian officials to defect and managed to entice a handful to do so over the last two years, reports the Los Angeles Times. The secret program, begun in 2005, was intended to disrupt Iranian nuclear research. The primary criterion for recruitment, according to a former...

Angry Iran Blasts US for 'Espionage'

Minister attack US intel, denies past weapons program

(Newser) - Iran has blasted the US for spying and demanded “explanations for US espionage" in a letter sent to Washington, the BBC reports.  Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said today that a recent US intelligence report—which claims Iran's nuclear weapons program ended four years ago—was full of “...

Gates: Iran Still a Threat to Security

Nukes aside, defense secretary lists Tehran's destabilizing activities

(Newser) - Iran is still a grave threat to regional security, with or without nuclear weapons, Robert Gates told a Persian Gulf conference today. The defense secretary challenged Tehran, which crowed over a recent US intelligence reassessment of its halted nuclear program, to acknowledge other American intelligence findings of destabilizing activities.

Merkel, Sarko Keep Heat on Iran
Merkel, Sarko Keep Heat on Iran
Dec 7, 2007 7:53 AM CST

Merkel, Sarko Keep Heat on Iran

Partners insist sanctions are still possible despite new intelligence

(Newser) - Angela Merkel joined Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday in reaffirming their hard line on Iran's nuclear program despite the new American intelligence assessment that weapons development was halted in 2003. "I don't see why we should renounce sanctions," said the French president at a joint press conference in Paris, with...

OPEC Declines to Boost Oil Output
OPEC Declines to Boost
Oil Output
Dec 6, 2007 10:33 AM CST

OPEC Declines to Boost Oil Output

$80 crude seems to be producers' new target; $3 gas isn't going anywhere soon

(Newser) - OPEC’s decision yesterday not to boost oil production, despite prices hovering around $90 a barrel, underscores a new reality, the New York Times observes: the oil producers aim to keep prices nearly that high—say around $80 a barrel—a target unthinkable a few years ago. In the US,...

Iran Flip Shows US Intelligence Turnaround

Tougher procedures born of Iraq failure result in nuke reversal

(Newser) - In reversing its 2005 finding that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, the US intelligence community is putting into practice changes adopted after crucial failures in the run-up to the Iraq war. The original used weak sourcing and less than rigorous fact-gathering, critics say. “I think people should take comfort...

Bush: Iran Is Still a Threat
Bush: Iran Is Still a Threat
Dec 4, 2007 10:05 AM CST

Bush: Iran Is Still a Threat

Prez resists suggestions that new report undermines his rhetoric

(Newser) - President Bush insisted today that Iran is still a threat, despite a new NIE report released yesterday concluding that the country shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003. "Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, Iran will be dangerous," he said in a news conference. The report should...

U-Turn on Iran Will Shake Up Foreign Policy

News of nuke halt leaves hawks isolated; intel agencies undercut

(Newser) - The National Intelligence Estimate's findings yesterday that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 will have dramatic fallout at home and abroad, the New York Times reports, beginning with the collapse of the White House's recent campaign to portray Iran as an immediate threat to world peace. It will...

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