Iran

Iran Shuts Office of Nobel Winner's Rights Group

Iranian police have shut down the office of a human rights group headed by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, seen here in her office, the deputy head of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, Narges Mohammadi, told AFP. (AFP/File/Atta Kenare)

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian authorities shut down the office of a human rights group led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi on Sunday as the group was preparing to honor a political activist who spent 17 years in prison in the Islamic republic.

Iranian authorities banned Ebadi's Center for Protecting Human Rights last year, but it had continued to operate from an office in the north of the capital, Tehran.

Posted in Iran

Analysts Urge Obama Not to Delay Action on Talks With Iran

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad answers questions at a news conference during the 63rd United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2008. (Chip East/Reuters)

TEHRAN - In light of the Iranian presidential election coming in mid-2009 and the U.S. distaste for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President-elect Barack Obama is being advised to avoid any communication with Tehran until after Iranians vote next June.

But Iranian political analysts who are familiar with the thinking of both Ahmadinejad and Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, believe it would be a serious mistake for Obama to take no action until after the election.

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Obama and Iran

Diplomats and scholars encourage Obama to invest in change instead of regime change

WASHINGTON - November 25 - In Washington this past week the National Iranian American Council held a special presentation to the US Senate in hopes of conveying to the new Obama administration the need for a long term strategy for the stabilization of Iran within the Middle East.  This recommendation is in direct conflict with the current Bush administrations band aid approach of regime change.  

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Posted in Iran

US Task Force Found Few Iranian Arms in Iraq

WASHINGTON - Last April, top George W. Bush administration officials, desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship between the Nouri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shi'a militias.

Posted in Iran

Documents Linking Iran to Nuclear Weapons Push May Have Been Fabricated

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has obtained evidence suggesting that documents which have been described as technical studies for a secret Iranian nuclear weapons-related research program may have been fabricated.

The documents in question were acquired by U.S. intelligence in 2004 from a still unknown source -- most of them in the form of electronic files allegedly stolen from a laptop computer belonging to an Iranian researcher. The US has based much of its push for sanctions against Iran on these documents.

Posted in Iran

Pundits Debate the Inevitability of a Nuclear Iran

WASHINGTON - It wasn't U.S. relations with an Arab country on the tips of many tongues at this year's National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations meeting in the last week of October. Rather, much of the focus was on the Arab Middle East's ethnic Persian neighbour to the east: Iran.

The question and answer session of a panel on Iraq and Iran was a microcosm of the chatter around Washington all year long about the ebbing and flowing likelihood of a potential U.S. bombing run against alleged secret Iranian nuclear sites.

Posted in Media, Iran

Now He Must Declare That the War on Terror Is Over

A day of joy but also another day of horror. Even as American voters were giving the world the man whom opinion polls showed to be the overwhelming favourite in almost every country, his predecessor's terrible legacy was already crowding in on the president-elect.

Posted in Afghanistan, Iran

Yes, We Really Must Talk With Iran

If American troops are ever to come home from Iraq and Iraqis are to have a decent chance at peace and prosperity, the United States must open up a new chapter in its Middle Eastern diplomacy. The Iraq Study Group in 2006 made this point when it called for "diplomatic dialogue, without preconditions." The Bush administration has largely ignored this advice.

Bipartisanship and Threats of War Toward Iran

Two former Senators -- conservative Democrat Chuck Robb and conservative Republican Dan Coats (that's what "bipartisan" means) -- have a jointly authored Op-Ed in The Washington Post today decreeing what the U.S.

F Is for Failure

On the brief occasions when the President now appears in the Rose Garden to "comfort" or "reassure" a shock-and-awed nation, you can almost hear those legions of ducks quacking lamely in the background. Once upon a time, George W. Bush, along with his top officials and advisors, hoped to preside over a global Pax Americana and a domestic Pax Republicana -- a legacy for the generations. More recently, their highest hope seems to have been to slip out of town in January before the you-know-what hits the fan. No such luck.

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