Month: September 2010

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 9th, 2010:

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Golnaz Esfandiari reports for RFE/RL, a U.S. Congress-funded international broadcaster, that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are increasingly at odds. Ahmadinejad has expanded his purview into foreign policy an area typically under the control of Khamenei, says Esfandiari. In recent weeks, Ahmadinejad has made unilateral appointments for special envoys to the Middle East, Asia Affairs, Caspian Affairs, and Afghanistan. “The appointments have been criticized as a blow to Iran’s Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, who believed [sic] to owe his appointment to Khamenei and is considered one of the few remaining so-called pragmatists in the Iranian government,” writes Esfandiari. Ahmadinejad is expected to unilaterally appoint special envoys for African Affairs and South America in the near future.

Washington Post: The Post picks up on an AP report that one of the three American hikers detained by Iran since July 2009 will be released on Saturday, coinciding with Eid al-Fitr, the feast to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “It is common in the Islamic world,” notes the AP article, “to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday by showing clemency and releasing prisoners.” The American hikers, all in the their mid-twenties, have been caught up in the tense relations between the U.S. and Iran. They were accused of spying by the Islamic Republic, while their families insist that they were hiking in Iraq and accidentally crossed the border into Iran.

Commentary: Jennifer Rubin finds it “troubling” that discussion of Iran came late in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Council on Foreign Relations speech, “suggesting that it really is not at the top of her to-do list.” She notes that Clinton omitted entirely the bellicose catchphrases that “all options are on the table” and that a nuclear Iran is “unacceptable.” The fact that Clinton is not solely focused on Iran is, for Rubin, an indication that the Israelis will have to go it alone and attack Iran: “[Israelis] must surely be coming to terms with the fact that their military is all that stands between the West and a nuclear-armed Iran.”

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 8th, 2010:

Wall Street Journal: The neoconservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is ready to declare International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions against Iran a failure. Riffing about the latest IAEA report that Iran is limiting the agency’s access to and information about its nuclear program — using such phrases as “Ho-hum” and “Groundhog Day, the Persian movie classic”– the editors are ready for more bold action. They conclude the IAEA report “ought to rally our leaders to explain the grave stakes here, in particular that military force might be needed as diplomacy and sanctions seem to be failing, and rally the world to stop Iran from acquiring a bomb.”

openDemocracy: Iranian journalist and blogger Omid Memarian checks in to give a cogent analysis of Iranian internal politics and how they could be potentially effected by external pressure. Memarian notes Iranian leadership is used to dealing with such pressure and then exploiting it to shore up its power. He points out there are many “positives” for Iran’s hard-line leaders among the list of “disastrous effects” of a military assault on Iran, and that such a scenario “would lead to more human-rights violations, worsen the situation for Iran’s middle class, push Iran further towards dictatorship and end any prospect of a more democratic country in the near future.” He adds “by removing the threat of a military attack, Washington would make the job of Tehran’s hardliners more difficult.”

The Daily Telegraph: Malcolm Moore reports on China’s plans to sign a $2 billion deal to build a 360 mile railway line from Tehran to the Khosravi, an Iranian town bordering Iraq. The Iranian government says the project could eventually link Iran, Iraq and possibly Syria. The project might be the first step for China in constructing rail link to Iran, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and eventually Kashgar in China. This modern day Silk Route would give China access to Iran’s port of Chahbahar on the Persian Gulf and on overland route to Europe. “Iran is determined to forge tighter links with its neighbours, and rebuild itself as a trade hub, in order to build a regional alliance that would support it against NATO countries,” writes Moore.

Council on Foreign Relations: In remarks delivered as part of a conversation with CFR president Richard Haass, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed Iran sanctions as “an example of American leadership in action.” Clinton said that American willingness to engage in diplomatic efforts regarding Iran has “re-energized the conversation” with allies, strengthened the global non-proliferation regime, and “through shoe-leather diplomacy” built a consensus of countries who will hold Iran accountable to meet its obligations under the NPT. Clinton called on Iran’s leadership to “meet the responsibilities incumbent upon all nations and enjoy the benefits of integration into the international community, or continue to flout your obligations and accept increasing isolation and costs.”

Larry Ludlow and his cohorts at San Diego Complete Liberty have put together an excellent brochure for their protest at the USS Midway in San Diego on Saturday. (Details available here).

The brochure is available in PDF. Unfortunately, I am not savvy enough to figure out how to put a PDF file into a WordPress blog entry. So I copied it as 2 JPEGs. (The actual brochure looks better than my copy). Click on the images to get a full-size, readable version.

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 7th, 2010:

ABC News: Iran was a hot topic of conversation on ABC’s Sunday talk show, “This Week with Christiane Amanpour”. In addition to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s restating that bombing the Islamic Republic is not to be ruled out (picked up from “This Week” in the Wall Street Journal), there was a back-and-forth between New York Times columnists Tom Friedman and Paul Krugman, Washington Post columnist George Will and Post editor Mary Jordan. Friedman alleged a “natural Sunni-Israel alliance.” Jordan noted people in the U.S. are “war-weary”, and although “all options are on the table,” war against Iran is the last option. Will said while Israel hopes it has a partner in attacking Iran (the U.S.), they will go it alone because “the Israelis are not going to wait on regime change to save them from a nuclear weapon.”

The Sunday Times (via Fox News): The Sunday Times reports that five Iranian companies in Kabul are providing cash for the Taliban and bonuses for killing Americans. An anonymous Afghan intelligence officer and Taliban sources tell the Times that Iranian companies win reconstruction contracts, often funded through foreign aid, and then use the money to support the Taliban. MSNBC, Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin, and the Weekly Standard’s Thomas Jocelyn also picked up The Sunday Times story.

The Associated Press: The AP reports on comments made Sunday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he warned that an Israeli attack, “…means the annihilation of the Zionist entity.” Ahmadinejad, who delivered the remarks in Qatar, sought to reassure neighboring Arab states, many of which host bases for U.S. forces, that he would not target them should a conflict break out between western states and Iran. During his visit, Ahmadinejad also called for reconciliation and greater cooperation between Shiite-dominated Iran and other, largely Sunni dominated, Gulf states.

If only Toles had written the word DEMOCRACY onto the anvil, the cartoon would be perfect.

(from today’s Washington Post)

Antiwar.com editorial director Justin Raimondo appeared again this weekend on Fox Business Channel’s Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano (his third appearance in six weeks).

Watch the clip here: