Iran Writes Letter To Bush

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It's Larijani's turn now...

Are Ahmadinejad's Days Numbered?
Thursday, May. 29, 2008 - Ali Larijani projected a presidential bearing as he accepted his election as speaker of Iran's parliament on Wednesday — a vote that boded ill for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Larijani, a high-profile arch-rival of the President, addressed global themes in his address to the opening session of the Majlis, dressing down the International Atomic Energy Agency and praising Hizballah. Despite the tough talk that was welcomed by some of the legislators with shouts of "God is great!" and "Death to America!" Larijani received a congratulatory call from European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana — an old negotiating partner. While Iran's insistence on its right to enrich uranium unites all major factions in the country, Larijani represents a more pragmatic approach to handling the issue, aimed at finding agreement with the West and avoiding confrontation.

Larijani's stunning return to center stage in Iranian politics makes two things clear: President Ahmadinejad's hold on power is slipping badly, and next year's Iranian presidential election race is now wide open. Winning 232 votes after persuading an Ahmadinejad ally, former Speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel, to step aside, Larijani is poised to make the position a dynamic power center in Iranian politics, and perhaps even a personal launch pad for challenging Ahmadinejad's bid for a second term of office.

"You're going to see Larijani as a very active and confident speaker," a Tehran analyst told TIME. His comeback has underscored the increasing fragility of Ahmadinejad's authority in the country; less than a year ago, the President had effectively forced Larijani out of his senior post as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and Iran's top nuclear negotiator.

More Are Ahmadinejad's Days Numbered? - TIME

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Work to erase Israel: Iranian minister
1 Jun 2008, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on the world's Muslims on Sunday to work to "erase" Israel, in the latest verbal attack by Tehran against the Jewish state.

"As the Imam Khomeini said, if each Muslim throws a bucket of water on Israel, Israel will be erased," Mottaki told a conference in Tehran, recalling a saying by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked international outrage for his repeated attacks against Israel, which he has predicted is doomed to disappear and described as a "stinking corpse" and a "dead rat". His most notorious attack was in 2005 when he repeated another saying from Khomeini calling for Israel to be "wiped from the map".

Mottaki added: "More than ever, the Zionist regime is disintegrating from within. Today, the Islamic resistance has shattered the regime's legend of invincibility." While Ahmadinejad and top military commanders regularly predict the demise of Israel, such virulent attacks from the foreign ministry are relatively unusual.

Iran vehemently denies charges of anti-Semitism, pointing to the continued existence in the country of the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel and saying it is only against Zionism. Tensions between Iran and Israel have also intensified in the past year over the Iranian nuclear drive.

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Iran givin' it a second thought...

Iran changes tune on European nuclear offer
Monday 23rd June, 2008 - Iran has said it is ready to negotiate on the package of incentives presented by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana last week.

The package was aimed at dissuading the Islamic country from uranium enrichment activities. The official IRNA news agency has reported that Iran is ready for talks on the updated package of concessions from the five permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany.

The package, included civilian nuclear cooperation as well as wider trade in aircraft, energy, high technology and agriculture. According to IRNA, Tehran will consider the proposals suggested by Mr Solana but also expects Europe to study the Islamic republic's package of proposals.

The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, said on the weekend that EU member states had tentatively agreed with the general views of the Iranian package of proposals, which call for an improved inspection system by the International Atomic Energy Agency, while reaffirming its 'non-negotiable' right to uranium enrichment. Iran's nuclear power programme has given rise to serious concern in the West, which fears Tehran has a secret nuclear weapons plan.

Iran changes tune on Europen nuclear offer

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Yea right, like we really want to expose our diplomats to bein' hostages again...

Iran 'may consider' U.S. diplomatic presence
July 2, 2008 -- Iran's foreign minister: More contacts "would be useful for better understanding"; U.S. is studying idea of an American-staffed interests section in Iran's capital; State Department: Idea is very preliminary and not anywhere near fruition; Time magazine: Minister says European proposals on nuclear issue 'constructive'

Iran's foreign minister has said his government might consider the American idea of opening a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Tehran -- comments coming amid possible progress in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. "Contacts between Iranians and the American people will be a useful step for better understanding of the two nations," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. Mottaki spoke to reporters Tuesday in New York, where he was attending a U.N. meeting.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has approved studying the idea of putting U.S. diplomats in an "interests section" that would be hosted by a third party's embassy in Iran's capital. However, State Department officials note that the idea is very preliminary and not anywhere near fruition. Interests sections are a way to let a country post diplomats in a nation with which it has no formal diplomatic relations. If the U.S. did open such an outpost, it would be the country's first diplomatic presence in Iran since the two nations severed relations in 1979 after the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by students loyal to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini.

At present, Swiss diplomats represent U.S. interests in Tehran. In Washington, Iranian officials staff an interests section in the Pakistani Embassy. RNA said Iran has proposed resuming flights between Tehran and New York "for facilitating visits to Iran of the Iranian nationals living in the United States." Rice said recently that the United States has for some time been attempting to reach out to the Iranian people. "We want more Iranians visiting the United States," she said. "We want the efforts that we've engaged in to have Iranian artists in the United States, American sports people in Iran. We're determined to find ways to reach out to the Iranian people." Mottaki, in New York to attend a meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, said Iran supports academic and sports exchanges between the two countries, IRNA reported.

More Iran minister: We might consider U.S. diplomatic presence - CNN.com

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Fearless W givin' `em fair warnin'...

US warns Iran as nuclear talks yield no deal
20 July 2008 : World powers' latest bid to make Iran halt its nuclear programme stalled Saturday as high-level talks involving US and Iranian officials ended without a deal and Washington warned of possible further "confrontation."

"It was a constructive meeting, but still we didn't get the answer to our questions," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after the talks in Geneva that aimed to get Tehran to give up its disputed nuclear programme in return for a package of incentives. "There is always progress in these talks, but insufficient," he said, adding that the Iranians were expected to respond to the latest incentives within two weeks.

He did not overtly address the question of further sanctions, but the US State Department after the talks warned Iran to accept the incentives or face "further isolation." "We hope the Iranian people understand that their leaders need to make a choice between cooperation, which would bring benefits to all, and confrontation, which can only lead to further isolation," spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.

Detailing the proposals on the table Saturday, Solana said the international community proposed that "we refrain from (further) Security Council resolutions and for Iran to refrain from nuclear activity including the installations of new centrifuges" for processing uranium. "We are looking forward to an answer from Iran in this question... in a couple of weeks," he said.

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Fearless W `bout to let the Israelis smack his sassy mouth...

Ahmadinejad: Iran won't give up nuclear rights
Saturday Aug, 2, 2008 - Iran will not give up "a single iota of its nuclear rights," the country's president said Saturday, rebuffing an informal deadline to stop expanding uranium enrichment or face more sanctions.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the remarks during discussions with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who arrived in Tehran Saturday for a two-day visit, the Iranian president's official Web site said. Assad is in Tehran to discuss Iran's controversial uranium enrichment following a request from French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Tehran was given an informal two-week deadline, set July 19 by the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany, to stop expanding uranium enrichment — at least temporarily — in exchange for their commitment to stop seeking new U.N. sanctions.

Ahmadinejad's stance signaled both a failure of Assad's mission and a rejection of the deadline, although his comments indicated he was not ruling out international talks on Iran's nuclear program. While stating that the Iranian nation "will not give up a single iota of its nuclear rights," he also said any participation in international talks on the nuclear issue would be aimed at reinforcing those rights.

Assad, who has been seeking a more prominent Mideast role for Syria, promised Sarkozy during a visit to France in July to try to persuade Iran to offer proof to the West that it isn't developing nuclear weapons. Syria is Iran's closest Arab ally — the two countries have had close relations since 1980, when Syria sided with Persian Iran against Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

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Oh gee, another deadline - Ahmadinejad must be shakin' in his boots...

Iran faces new deadline in nuclear row
05 August 2008 - Iran delivered a message to the EU on Tuesday as it faced a fresh ultimatum from six global powers to accept an incentives package to freeze sensitive nuclear work or face more UN sanctions.

But Iran insisted the message delivered to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was not a response to the latest offer drawn up by the major powers to end the five-year crisis over Tehran's nuclear drive. "The message delivered today is not Iran's response to the six countries," a source with the Supreme National Security Council told AFP on condition of anonymity, without elaborating. The Western warnings of fresh sanctions came as Iran declared that it could block the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial Gulf waterway through which much of the world's oil supplies passes.

Britain had warned that the lack of a positive answer from Tehran by the end of Tuesday would leave the powers with "no choice" but to ask the UN Security Council to take further punitive measures. The new deadline was set after Iran ignored a previous demand to respond by last weekend to the package being offered by the permanent Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and Germany. The United States and its allies fear the programme is a cover for developing nuclear weapons, a claim vehemently denied by Tehran which insists its aim is to generate electricity for its growing population.

The ultimatum came as Iran said on Monday it had successfully test-fired an anti-ship missile with a range of 300 kilometres that would allow it to close the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman. "No enemy vessels would be able to escape it," the commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on state television. "Given the equipment our armed forces have, an indefinite blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be very easy," Jafari said.

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Big powers renew sanctions threat against Iran
05 August 2008 WASHINGTON: The six powers holding nuclear talks with Tehran threatened on Monday to pursue new punitive action against Iran if it does not accept their offer of incentives to freeze uranium enrichment operations.

Britain said Iran would face new UN sanctions unless it gives a response by Tuesday to the offer, a British Foreign Office spokesman said. "We will be disappointed if there (is) no response to the E3 proposals by tomorrow," the spokesman said, referring to proposals formally put to Tehran by Britain, France and Germany.

"We will have no choice but to ask the UN to proceed with further sanctions." The French foreign ministry echoed that stance, saying the Islamic republic "will have to face new sanctions" if it does not respond positively by Tuesday to the international community's sanctions freeze-for-enrichment freeze offer.

Paris "expressed its disappointment at the lack of a clear response from Iran" to the proposals, the ministry said in a statement. InNew York France's deputy UN ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix told AFP: "If we don't get an encouraging response from the Iranians, we will have to show firmness, resort to sanctions as in the past."

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