Iran President News Conference

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UN puts Mugabe, Ahmadinejad in the same class...

Mugabe, Ahmadinejad excluded from UN dinner
June 03, 2008 - THE Italian and UN hosts of a UN crisis summit on rising food prices excluded the leaders of Zimbabwe and Iran from the opening dinner today.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe is able to attend the meeting only because an EU travel ban on him does not apply to UN forums. And Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on his first visit to Western Europe as Iranian president, made sure of a frosty welcome by offending Israel on the eve of his departure. Neither was invited to the official dinner hosted by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon for the heads of state attending the June 3-5 summit.

Western ministers said Mr Mugabe was responsible for the food shortages faced by millions in Zimbabwe's shattered economy. "We will not allow the millions of people who can no longer afford a normal meal to be held hostage by Mugabe," said Dutch development minister Bert Koenders. British International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said 4 million Zimbabweans had to rely on food aid because of Mr Mugabe's policies. "This is not a man with any credibility or any contribution to a discussion on international food," he said. The leader of the former British colony arrived in Rome, home of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), late yesterday, his first official trip abroad since March elections condemned by Western and opposition leaders as fraudulent.

Mr Ahmadinejad said before setting off for Rome that Israel would soon disappear off the map, and the "satanic power" of the US would be destroyed. His visit has already created a diplomatic headache for Italy and the Holy See after he was said to have requested a meeting with the Pope and Mr Berlusconi. The Italian government ruled out a meeting, citing time constraints, and the Pope's schedule for the week mentioned no audiences for any of the summit's heads of state.

More Mugabe, Ahmadinejad excluded from UN dinner | NEWS.com.au

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Japan followed the same path that lead to WWII...

The militarisation of Iran's politics
24 June 2008 - Iran faces formidable challenges in its nuclear stand-off with the West.

With Iran facing formidable challenges in its nuclear stand-off with the West, and given the internal pressures for political and economic reforms, the political leadership of the Islamic Republic is increasingly relying on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) to maintain power. Having chosen the path of defiance in relation to the West and repression of domestic unease, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei considers the IRGC officer class more apt at crisis management both at home and abroad than the bureaucratic leftovers from the presidencies of Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997) and Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005).

This trend is reflected in the composition of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad�s government, appointments of provincial governors and the results of the 14 March 2008 parliamentary elections. Without Khamenei's blessing, who is the ultimate religious and political authority, this militirisation of politics could not have occurred, at least not at this pace.

Far from being an innovation, the IRGC's presence in the Ahmadinejad government continues a constant in the Islamic Republic's politics, in which the ideological officer corps has been represented in all but the shortlived transitional government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan (February-November 1979). Still, the number of former IRGC members seems to have reached a new peak during the Ahmadinejad presidency. Besides Ahmadinejad, nine out of his 21 cabinet ministers all come from the IRGC. The Supreme Leader's sole reliance on the IRGC would make Ayatollah Khamenei a prisoner of his own guard in the longer term which could, therefore, pave the way for a military dictatorship to replace the theocratic regime.

The militarisation of Iran's politics - Jane's Country Risk News

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Mahmoud got inflation problems...

Inflation rate blows out in Iran
Saturday 5th July, 2008 - Iran's inflation rate, which has provoked intense criticism of the government, reached 26 percent in June.

The Iran central bank has revealed inflation reached 26.4 percent compared with the same month a year ago.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been blamed for the inflation by ploughing huge amounts of cash into the economy to fund local infrastructure projects.

Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 on a platform of allowing the poor a share in the country's massive oil wealth.

Inflation rate blows out in Iran

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Condi says Iran not negotiating in good faith...

Rice says Iran wasn't serious at nuke talks
20 July `08 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran on Monday of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program despite the presence of a senior U.S. diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions.

In her first public comments since Saturday's meeting in Switzerland, Rice said Iran had given the run-around to envoys from the U.S. and five other world powers. She said all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline Iran now has to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or be hit with new penalties. At the meeting, Iran had been expected to respond to a package of incentives offered in exchange for halting enrichment of uranium, which can be used to fuel atomic weapons. The Bush administration broke with long-standing policy to send a top diplomat to support the offer.

However, Rice said that instead of a coherent answer, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili delivered a "meandering" monologue full of irrelevant "small talk about culture" that appeared to annoy many of the others present at the table in Geneva.

"We expected to hear an answer from the Iranians but, as has been the case so many times with the Iranians, what came through was not serious," Rice told reporters aboard her plane as she flew to the United Arab Emirates. "It's time for the Iranians to give a serious answer." "They can't go and stall and make small talk about culture, they have to make a decision," she said. "People are tired of the Iranians and their stalling tactics."

Harsh remarks

See also:

Source: Bush will attack Iran
July 20,`08 (UPI) -- An unnamed Israeli security official claims U.S. President George Bush will attack Iran late this year if talks on the Mideast nation's nuclear program falter.

The Israeli Web site DEBKAfile.com, quoting Israel National Radio, reported Sunday that a "highly placed security-political" official said Bush would order the attack between Nov. 4, the date of the U.S. presidential election, and his last day in office in January 2009 should Iran not agree to abandon its efforts to enrich uranium.

DEBKAfile.com said the official made the statement shortly after Saturday's talks between Western powers and Iran in Geneva ended in a deadlock.

Source

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Obviously sanctions don't work with Iran - bomb `em...

U.N. Security Council eyes more Iran sanctions
August 4, 2008 WASHINGTON -- U.N. Security Council members had given Iran two weeks to respond to offer; Economic, other incentives had been offered to Iran to halt nuclear activity; Iran now says it will respond to the offer on Tuesday, two days after deadline

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany have agreed to seek further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program after the Islamic state missed a deadline to respond to council incentives, the State Department said Monday. In a phone call Monday among their envoys handling the nuclear talks, the six powers agreed that "in the absence of a clear, positive response from Iran, we have no choice but to pursue other measures against Iran," acting State Department spokesman Gonzo Gallegos told reporters. The Security Council had offered the incentives two weeks ago, and this past Saturday had been the deadline for Iran to respond.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, the lead European negotiator, that Iran would provide a written response to the offer on Tuesday -- two days after the weekend deadline. It was not known whether a late response from Iran would head off the sanctions. The council had offered to suspend sanctions against Tehran in exchange for a suspension of its uranium enrichment activity, which the international community fears could contribute to the production of a nuclear weapon. "The pressure on Iran to comply with the demands of the international community and the U.N. Security Council will only grow," Gallegos said.

Last week, an Iranian official said his nation had already responded to the offer of incentives. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran had responded with its own proposal, which involved another set of talks. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week had warned Iran not to delay its response to the incentive offer, made by Security Council permanent members the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. Germany also joined in the offer to Iran. The nations offered the package of economic and other incentives because they and others are concerned that Iran may be working to build nuclear weapons. Tehran has insisted its nuclear program is to produce energy, not for military purposes.

More U.N. Security Council eyes more Iran sanctions - CNN.com

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Its a win-win situation for them if they knock out the oil shipping lanes and oil prices go back up...

Iran claims to have launched missile capable of closing Strait of Hormuz
05 August 2008 - Iran has tested a 300 km-range missile that it claims would be able to close the Strait of Hormuz

Iran has test launched a naval-based missile with a 300 km range, state media reported on 4 August, warning that it would be able to easily close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world's crude oil supplies pass.

The announcement came after Tehran missed an informal deadline to agree to suspend efforts to expand its nuclear capabilities under threat of more sanctions from the UN.

Speaking on the state television channel Al Alam News, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said: "In view of the proximity of the Strait of Hormuz ... to our shores, this distance is within the range of an assortment of weapons and its closure for us is very feasible and we face no limitations from the point of view of time."

Iran claims to have launched missile capable of closing Strait of Hormuz - Jane's Defence News