Iran.

Uh-oh, the womens is riled up now. Granny says there gonna be some changes...

Iran women arrested at protest
Sunday, 4 March 2007, Iran's authorities arrest more than 32 women protesting against alleged discrimination in the capital, Tehran.

Iran's authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran. The protesters were showing solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they say discriminate against women.

The five have been charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering. US pressure group, Human Rights Watch, has urged an end to the prosecution.

It said the women had been exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly. The five are organisers of a demonstration last June which was violently broken up by the police and led to the arrest of 70 people, many of them innocent bystanders.

'Intimidation'

Uh-oh, ol' Camel-lips done stepped in his mess kit now...

Iran Under Fire for Crackdown on Women Activists
08 March 2007 - Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are accusing Iran of increasing persecution and legal prosecution of women's rights activists.

Human Rights Watch researcher Hadi Ghaemi says the situation for women in Iran is paradoxical. "Iranian women are at the cutting edge of social activism in Iran," he said. "Although they are visible and extremely successful in every social, economic and cultural domain, Iranian law treats them as second class citizens, and discriminates against them."

He said that during the past year, the Iranian government has "substantially stepped up its persecution and prosecution of peaceful women's' rights advocates." Last Sunday, Iranian security forces arrested 34 women's rights activists at a demonstration in Tehran. Most of them have since been released, except three women who the rights groups say are being held in solitary confinement and are on hunger strikes.

"Are we supposed to be happy that all the other women were released?" asked Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, a prominent Iranian campaigner for women's rights. "Meanwhile, there are open cases before the court for all these women. And at any moment, they might be detained again. And is this a mode to try to control all women's rights activists?" Fariba Davoodi Mohajer is one of five defendants in a court case stemming from a demonstration last June that urged equal rights for women. Tehran says the rally was unauthorized.

More http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-03-08-voa69.cfm

"Clearly the Russians and the Iranians are getting on each other's nerves — and that's not all bad."

Russia Starts Playing Hardball With Iran
March 20, 2007 Paper Reports Moscow Issues Ultimatum To Stop Enrichment

Russia has told Iran that it will withhold nuclear fuel for a power plant Moscow is building inside the Islamic republic, unless Tehran halts its contentious uranium enrichment program, according to a Tuesday report in the New York Times. The ultimatum comes after several weeks of growing tension between Tehran and Russia, one of the few countries that has tried to temper a push by the United States to punish Iran for its nuclear program.

Russia has been building a nuclear power plant at Bushehr, in Iran, as an incentive to deter the regime from forging ahead with a nuclear enrichment program on their own, away from the eyes of other nations. In recent weeks, Moscow has accused Tehran of failing to make payments for the crucial fuel delivery — what would be the next step in the plant's construction — and said the fuel would be withheld until overdue payments were made.

Russia's state-run nuclear power company went so far as to say the delinquent payments could permanently derail the planned construction of the plant. Iran's government has insisted repeatedly that all due payments have been made, and says Russia must provide the gas according to the deal struck by the two nations. U.S. and European government representatives said Tuesday that Russia is pulling out its experts from the Iranian nuclear reactor site at Bushehr.

MORE

See also:

Russia Pulling Out Of Iran Nuke Project
Mar. 20, 2007 Russia Pulling Its Experts From Unfinished Iranian Nuclear Reactor

Russia is bringing home its technicians and engineers from Iran's unfinished nuclear reactor site at a time of growing international pressure on Tehran to curb its atomic ambitions, U.S. and European representatives said Tuesday. Although both Russia and Iran officially say their differences are financial, the dispute has a strong political component that the West hopes could result in Moscow lining up closer behind U.S.-led efforts to slap harsher U.N. sanctions on Tehran for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment.

The representatives _ a European diplomat and a U.S. official _ said a large number of Russian technicians, engineers and other specialists were flown to Moscow within the last week, around the time senior Russian and Iranian officials tried but failed to resolve differences over the nuclear reactor outside the southern city of Bushehr. Russian officials deny links between the dispute over Bushehr and Iran's nuclear defiance. But two senior European officials, speaking separately, said Moscow recently dropped all pretexts and bluntly told Iran that Russia would not make good on pledges to deliver nuclear fuel for Bushehr unless Tehran complies with the U.N. demand for an enrichment freeze.

Asked about the approximately 2,000 Russian workers at Bushehr, the U.S. official said: "A good number of them have left recently." The European diplomat, who is accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said a large number had departed last week, during abortive talks in Moscow between Russian Security Council head Igor Ivanov and Ali Hosseini Tash, Iran's deputy Security Council chief. Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency, confirmed the number of Russian workers at Bushehr had recently dwindled because of what he said were Iranian payment delays. He would not say how many had left.

MORE

The British sailor crisis...

Britain, Iran, agree on diplomatic solution to captured sailors
Monday 2nd April, 2007 - A British official says London shares Tehran's preference for early bilateral discussions to resolve the case of 15 captured British sailors seized by Iran in the Gulf.

The foreign office spokeswoman, referring to comments Monday by Iran's national security chief Ali Larijani, said there are differences between Larijani and the British government but that Britain also favors a diplomatic solution to the problem. The spokeswoman said London will follow up with Iranian officials on Tuesday.

Larijani told British television Monday that he believes the situation can be resolved diplomatically. Earlier, Iranian media said all the British sailors and marines had confessed to illegally entering Iranian waters. Britain says its personnel were in Iraqi waters when they were seized March 23. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today that Britain's demand for the detainees' unconditional release has not changed.

British defense chief Des Browne says London is communicating with Iran directly in an effort to gain the captives' release. About 200 Iranian students staged a protest outside the British Embassy in Tehran Sunday over the 15 Britons' alleged violation of Iranian waters. The students threw rocks and firecrackers at the building. There were no reports of injuries.

http://www.beijingnews.net/story/238762

See also:

Philippine Government Unveils Contingency Plan In Iran
April 2, 2007 - The Philippine government on Monday unveiled its contingency plan for the small Filipino community in Iran in the wake of mounting crisis in the region because of the continued detention of Tehran of 15 British sailors.

Department of Foreign Affairs undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said there were an estimated 20 Filipinos in Iran, mostly married to Iranians, but the crisis could spiral into a Middle East crisis. Conejos said the Iran contingency plan involve the possible evacuation of the over 1.8 million overseas Filipino working in the Middle East. He said the crisis in Iran "had repercussions in the entire region."

"My task is to make sure that these [individual country] plans are updated to withstand a new crisis that may arise. [The new plan] has to be coordinated because when we're talking of a regional threat, the contingency plans have to be regionally coordinated with each other," Conejos said. Aside from the detention of 15 British Navy personnel by Iranian authorities, the United Nations Security Council on March 24 unanimously adopted a fresh resolution imposing stiffer sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment activities.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected the new U.N. sanctions, calling them illegal. He insists as saying that his country's nuclear activities were legal and "based on the country's legal and inalienable rights" and that the program would "continue without hesitation." The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons in the guise of civilian nuclear program. Tehran vehemently denies the charge.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006925087

Another crisis resolved...

Oil Prices Drop on Iran's Announcement
April 04, 2007 - Oil prices dropped Thursday as Iran's announcement that it would free 15 detained British sailors helped to ease fears about a disruption in oil supplies.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery fell 13 cents to $64.25 a barrel in midmorning Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This followed a drop of 26 cents the day before. But traders have only shaved off part of the nearly $5 premium they added to crude futures after the sailors were detained March 23, when Iran said they entered its waters. Iran is located along the Strait of Hormuz, a key channel through which many oil tankers pass.

Concerns about tight U.S. domestic supplies offset much of the relief over the Britons' release. A weekly report released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that gasoline inventories declined for the eighth straight week and that demand is still strong. U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 4.3 million barrels to 332.7 million barrels last week, according to the report, while gasoline inventories dropped 5 million barrels to 205.2 million barrels. The drop was much larger than the market had anticipated, and it pushed gasoline inventories into the lower half of their average range for this time of year.

Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil, were unchanged at 118 million barrels. Refineries operated at 87 percent of capacity for the second straight week. Over the last four weeks, gasoline demand has averaged nearly 9.3 million barrels per day, the EIA said, which is 1.7 percent above the same period last year. In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures dropped 0.34 cent to $1.8610 a gallon, while natural gas prices rose 0.7 cent to $7.522 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source

See also:

Quid pro quo?

Britain to consider lifting restrictions on Iran
Thursday 5th April, 2007 - Britain will soon consider lifting its restrictions on Iran after the 15 detained sailors were released, the British Foreign Ministry said.

The British sailors and marines were officially freed following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's news conference Wednesday, during which he called the release 'a gift' to the British people.

On March 28, the British Foreign Ministry said it would freeze business contacts with Iran and cancel official visits and the issuance of visas to Iranian officials.

Iran detained 15 British seamen in the Gulf March 23 for allegedly violating its maritime border with Iraq. Britain has insisted the servicemen were returning in dinghies to the HMS Cornwall after patrolling oil platforms outside Iranian territory.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=239332

Wonder what they gonna do with all them centrifuges?...

Iran wants 50,000 centrifuges, not 3000
10 Apr.2007 - IRAN is still seeking to install 50,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at its nuclear plant in Natanz, the head of the Iranian atomic energy organisation said today.

"The objective of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not just the installation of 3,000 centrifuges at the Natanz plant but we are doing everything to install 50,000 centrifuges,'' Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said, according to the IRNA news agency. Iran said yesterday it could now enrich uranium on an industrial scale but did not disclose how many centrifuges it had now installed at the Natanz plant in central Iran to enrich uranium.

Mr Aghazadeh said he did not disclose at a ceremony yesterday the number of centrifuges Iran had installed at a massive underground facility in Natanz as he did not want to "create ambiguities'' about Iran's objectives. "I did not want people to say that Iran has finished installing 3000 centrifuges and everything has been completed now,'' he said.

"I thought that foreign media might interpret that the nuclear program of Iran had come to an end with the installation of 3000 centrifuges,'' he said. "On the contrary, we have entered into the industrial phase and the installation of machines will continue until we reach 50,000 centrifuges,'' he said.

More http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...-23109,00.html

Iran supporting the insurgents...

Iran Training EFP Bomb-Makers
April 11, 2007 - Iran has been training Iraqi fighters in the assembly of deadly roadside bombs known as EFPs, the U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, hurl a fist-sized lump of molten copper capable of piercing armored vehicles. 'We know that they are being in fact manufactured and smuggled into this country, and we know that training does go on in Iran for people to learn how to assemble them and how to employ them,' Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a weekly briefing. 'We know that training has gone on as recently as this past month from detainees' debriefs.'

In January, U.S. officials said at least 170 U.S. soldiers had been killed by EFPs. Caldwell also said the U.S. military had evidence that Iranian intelligence agents were active in Iraq in funding, training and arming Shiite militia fighters.

'We also know that training still is being conducted in Iran for insurgent elements from Iraq. We know that as recent as last week from debriefing personnel,' he said. 'They do receive training on how to assemble and employ EFPs,' Caldwell said, adding that fighters also were trained in how to carry out complex attacks that used explosives followed by assaults with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

MORE

Iran stickin' their nose into Israel...

Iran Caught Trying To Recruit Israeli Spies
April 18, 2007 - Israeli security officials on Tuesday said they uncovered several recent attempts by Iran to recruit spies inside the Jewish state.

According to reports, over the past two years at least 10 Israeli Jews of Iranian descent were targeted by Iranian recruiters while seeking entry visas at the Iranian consulate in Istanbul to visit family in the Islamic Republic. An Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) official told Ynet, "Until now we had to indict no one because the attempts were thwarted... But we are very concerned by the ever-growing phenomenon." Some 100 Israeli Jews of Iranian descent seek to visit their birthplace every year, but must go through Turkey or another country as Iran does not allow anyone to enter on a passport containing Israel entry stamps.

Once the Iranian consulate discovers that an applicant for entry is Israeli, they are taken away to a side room and interrogated for hours, said the Shin Bet source. The Israelis are questioned about Israel's decision-making processes, its military capabilities, and the current social atmosphere. They are then either threatened or bribed to spy on Israel on behalf of Iran. While official confirmation of this practice is only now being made public, Nouriel Shaccid, who works with a religious organization that assists new immigrants from Iran, told The Jerusalem Post that it has been going on for a very long time.

"The Iranians have always been searching, and they always try to target new immigrants as spies," said Shaccid. But he insisted that the 100,000 or so Persian Jews who today live in Israel are "a very close-knit community," and efforts by the regime in Tehran to recruit them "will never succeed."

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007079059

I think we all know what enriching uranium is meant for...

IAEA: Iran Enriching Uranium Gas
April 18, 2007 - Atomic Energy Agency Warns Of Swift Advance Of Nation's Nuclear Program

Iran has started enriching small amounts of uranium gas at its underground plant and is already running more than 1,300 of the machines used in the enrichment process, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency document obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The confidential document — a letter to Iranian officials from a senior IAEA staff member — also protests an Iranian decision to prevent agency inspectors to visit the country's heavy water facility that, when built, will produce plutonium. Enriched uranium and plutonium can both be used for the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Last week, Iran said it had begun operating 3,000 centrifuges at its Natanz facility, nearly 10 times the previously known number. The United States, Britain, France and others criticized the announcement, but experts, and several world powers, expressed skepticism that Iran's claims were true and diplomats in Vienna familiar with the state of the program told the AP they were greatly exaggerated. Still, the one-page letter reflected a swift advance in the program. A little more than two weeks ago, those diplomats had said Tehran was running only a little more than 600 centrifuges, and had not introduced any uranium gas into them.

The letter, signed by IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen and dated April 18 said the agency wanted to "take note of the information provided by Iran ... that Iran has put into operation" 1,312 centrifuges, the machines used to spin the gas into enriched uranium. The letter also cited Iranian information to the agency that "some UF6 is being fed" into the centrifuges, referring to the uranium gas that can be enriched to levels potent enough to be used for nuclear arms.

MORE

Iran stalling for more time to complete their program - again...

Iran Asks for Time on Nuclear Compromise
May 7, 2007 - A 130-nation nuclear meeting stalled for its sixth straight day Monday after Iran refused to commit itself to a compromise meant to break a deadlock caused by Tehran's opposition to language of the gathering's agenda.

Diplomats at the conference - meant to work on strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - told The Associated Press that the decision by the chairman of the meeting to skirt the issue at least until Tuesday came after Iran asked for an extra day of consultations with its capital. But the diplomats, who demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss confidential issues, suggested that Iran's request was nothing more than a delaying tactic, noting it had already had three days since the meeting was adjourned on Friday to come up with a decision.

"The Iranians seem chiefly interested in seeing this meeting fail," said one of the delegates, suggesting Tehran's main focus was preventing any debate on its defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand that it stop all aspects of its uranium enrichment program. Another delegate, from a nonaligned country - a group that normally backs Iran on nuclear issues - said that even among nonaligned nations "the mood was bad" because of Tehran's unyielding stance.

In acknowledging that "more time is needed to address this issue again," the chairman, Yukiya Amano of Japan, expressed "full understanding of the frustration of the delegations" with the lack of even minimum progress on substantive issues because of bickering over the agenda. He designated a scheduled afternoon session to deal with agreeing on a time and place for the next NPT preparatory conference - a move delegates said was meant to avoid further bickering over the agenda and give Tehran the extra time it had requested.

More My Way News - Iran Asks for Time on Nuclear Compromise