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Political activist Yaser Yousefzadeh arrested in Babolsar

Yaser Yousefzadeh, political activist from Mazandaran province has been detained at his residence. Security agents who were not in possession of an arrest warrant, raided Yousefzadeh’s residence and violently detained him. According to reports by Jemran News, when the agents showed up, Yaser’s family members demanded that they produce an arrest warrant. The aggressive agents then violently confronted the family members and in the skirmish that ensued they used pepper spray on Yaser’s father. Yaser ran towards them with bare feet in order to prevent the agents from hurting his father, and ended up getting and handcuffed and severely beaten up to the horror of his powerless parents. The agents then forced Yaser into an unmarked car and whisked him away. Yaser was taken from his father’s home to his own residence after this savage attack, where the agents took his personal belongings after searching and ransacking his home. During the raid on his home, the brutality of the agents caused the whole neighborhood to get agitated and the agents again used pepper spray and viciously confronted Yaser’s distraught neighbors. Yaser Yousefzadeh is a graduate of Polytechnic University (Amirkabir) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was an active member of Mousavi’s presidential political campaign in Mozandaran province and was a staff member of Mousavi’s campaign 88 in the city of Babolsar during the 2009 presidential elections. Yousefzadeh had previously been detained and held in solitary confinement in a holding cell at the Sari Intelligence headquarters. Article in Persian: http://www.rahana.org/archives/47498

Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb vs. Iran

WSJ -- Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan. The 30,000-pound "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs. But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, wouldn't be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them. Doubts about the MOP's effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb's ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, the officials said. The push to boost the power of the MOP is part of stepped-up contingency planning for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear program, say U.S. officials. The Defense Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, according to government officials briefed on the plan. Some experts question if any kind of conventional explosives are capable of reaching facilities such as those built deep underground in Iran. But U.S. defense officials say they believe the MOP could already do damage sufficient to set back the program. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal Thursday, acknowledged the bomb's shortcomings against some of Iran's deepest bunkers. He said more development work would be done and that he expected the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon. "We're still trying to develop them," Mr. Panetta said. President Barack Obama has made clear that he believes U.S. and international sanctions can curb Iran's nuclear program if they are given more time to work. At the same time, however, Mr. Obama has asked the Pentagon to come up with military options. In Tuesday's State of the Union address, Mr. Obama said: "Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal." Iran denies it is trying to develop atomic weapons. The U.S. has sought in recent weeks to tamp down tensions with Iran, but the Pentagon is at the same time pushing ahead with contingency planning. "The development of this weapon is not intended to send a signal to any one particular country," Pentagon press secretary George Little said. "It's a capability we believe we need in our arsenal and will continue to invest in it." Officials said the planned improvements to the MOP were meant to overcome shortcomings that emerged in initial testing. They said the new money was meant to ensure the weapon would be more effective against the deepest bunkers, including Iran's Fordow enrichment plant facility, which is buried in a mountain complex surrounded by antiaircraft batteries, making it a particularly difficult target even for the most powerful weapons available to the U.S. Developing an effective bunker-buster is complicated in part because of the variables, experts say. Penetration varies depending on factors such as soil density and the types of stone and rock shielding the target. Boeing received a contract in 2009 to fit the weapon on the U.S.'s B-2 Stealth Bomber. The Air Force began receiving the first of the bombs in September, a time of growing tensions with Iran. The Air Force has so far contracted to buy 20 of the bombs, and more deliveries are expected in 2013, after additional tests are made. Should a decision be made to use the MOP as currently configured, it could cause "a lot of damage" to Iran's underground nuclear facilities but wouldn't necessarily destroy them outright, Mr. Panetta said. "We're developing it. I think we're pretty close, let's put it that way. But we're still working at it because these things are not easy to be able to make sure that they will do what we want them to." Mr. Panetta added: "But I'm confident, frankly, that we're going to have that capability and have it soon," The decision to ask now for more money to develop the weapon was directly related to efforts by the U.S. military's Central Command to prepare military options against Iran as quickly as possible, according to a person briefed on the request for additional funds. A senior defense official said the U.S. had other options besides the MOP to set back Iran's nuclear program. "The Massive Ordnance Penetrators are by no means the only capability at our disposal to deal with potential nuclear threats in Iran," the official said. Another senior U.S. official said the Pentagon could make up for the MOPs' shortcomings by dropping them along with other guided bombs on top of a bunker's entry and exit points—provided the intelligence is available about where they are all located. Successful strikes on bunker entry and exit points could prevent an enemy from accessing such a site and could cause enough damage to stop or slow enrichment activity there. "There is a virtue to deepness but you still need to get in and out," the senior U.S. official said. The Pentagon was particularly concerned about its ability to destroy bunkers built under mountains, such as Iran's Fordow site near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, according to a former senior U.S. official who is an expert on Iran. The official said some Pentagon war planners believe conventional bombs won't be effective against Fordow and that a tactical nuclear weapon may be the only military option if the goal is to destroy the facility. "Once things go into the mountain, then really you have to have something that takes the mountain off," the official said. The official said the MOP may be more effective against Iran's main enrichment plant at Natanz but added: "But even that is guesswork." The Pentagon notified Congress in mid-January that it wants to divert around $82 million to refine the MOP, taking the money from other defense programs. The decision to sidestep the normal budget request process suggests the Pentagon deems the MOP upgrades to be a matter of some urgency. Mr. Panetta said Iran wasn't the only potential target. "It's not just aimed at Iran. Frankly, it's aimed at any enemy that decides to locate in some kind of impenetrable location. The goal here is to be able to get at any enemy, anywhere," he said Mr. Panetta and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates have argued that a military strike would at best delay Iran's nuclear development for a few years. Advocates of a strike say such a delay could be decisive by buying time for other efforts to thwart the program. According to Air Force officials, the 20.5 foot-long MOP carries over 5,300 pounds of explosive material. It is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet underground before exploding. The mountain above the Iranian enrichment site at Fordow is estimated to be at least 200 feet tall. Israel has large bunker-buster bombs but the U.S. hasn't provided the MOP to any other country. Write to Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com and Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com

Report: US Military to Send 'Mothership' to Middle East

VOA News -- A media report says the U.S. military plans to send a floating base for commando teams to the Middle East, where relations with Iran are tense and other nations are in the midst of political upheaval. The Washington Post newspaper on Saturday cited unspecified U.S. Navy documents saying the service plans to convert an aging warship into a staging base for the commandos, calling it a "mothership." A Navy spokesman declined to provide details on the plans or to say where in the Middle East the mothership would be deployed. The report says documents indicate the vessel could be positioned in the Persian Gulf, where Iran has threatened to block the critical oil-shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. Other Navy officials told the Post that the Pentagon hopes to complete the conversion and send the ship to the region later this year. The newspaper report says the base is expected to accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters often used by Navy SEALS for special operations. On Thursday U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced plans for Pentagon budget cuts that would reduce ground forces and depend more on Special Forces operations in upcoming years. The plan also involves shifting focus from Europe to the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions. Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

Livni: World must stop Iran's quest for the bomb

JPost -- Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni on Saturday called for tougher sanctions against Iran, saying that it is the responsibility of the entire world to stop Tehran’s quest for the bomb. Livni’s statement came during a meeting she and Kadima MK Nachman Shai held with Amir Abbas Fakhravar and Saghar Erica Kasraie of the Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS) in Tel Aviv. The two came as a delegation from the CIS, which describes itself as a pro-Western independent student movement with more than 8,000 members in countries across the world. Upon meeting Livni, Fahkravar quipped that he was happy to meet the head of the Israeli opposition, though he added in Israel - a democracy - being in the opposition doesn’t mean jail and torture. “It’s a different sort of torture”, Livni joked in response. Livni, who was presented with a green ribbon symbolizing the pro-democracy “Green Movement”, expressed her belief that diplomatic relations should also be between the peoples of different countries. Fakhravar told Livni that the main goal of the younger generation in Iran is to achieve democracy, and added that Israel “has suffered a great deal to have a democracy, the only democracy in the Middle East.” Like Livni, Fakhravar also emphasized the importance of harder sanctions on Iran’s energy industry in stopping the Islamic Republic’s regime from attaining a nuclear weapon. The CIS describes its main objective as working towards supporting pro-democracy, human rights, and freedom in Iran, "the constitutional foundations of a new free, secular and democratic Iran." They also describe themselves as "the action arm of the Iranian Freedom Institute, a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit establishment dedicated to education and research in the fields of human rights and democracy. Fakhravar is the CIS founder and President of the Iranian Freedom Institute in Washington D.C. Fakhravar, who spent five years in Iranian prison for participating in July 1999 student riots, defected to the United States in 2006. Fakhravar was joined by Saghar Erica Kasraie, the spokesperson for the CIS In addition to the meeting with Livni, the two have planned to meet with other MKs, academics, and think tanks.

Peres: Iran the most corrupt country on earth

Ynetnews -- President Shimon Peres voiced concern over Hamas' foreign funding but expressed hope that direct talks with the Palestinian Authority could bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an interview with CNN, which was released Friday. Addressing the rising tensions over Iran's nuclear development, Peres also restated his call on the citizens of the Islamic Republic to topple their "evil government." The leader told the news network's Richard Quest that Hamas gets a whopping $900 million in funding each year, mostly from Iran, Qatar and Turkey. Yedioth Ahronth reported recently that Turkey has promised to funnel Hamas as much as $300 million in annual aid. Peres noted that the finances could help the terror grow stronger than the moderate movements in the Palestinian territories. An attempt to restart the talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Amman ended this week without progress, but Peres said he still believes that negotiations are the only way to reach peace in the Middle East. According to Peres, extremists in the region "use the (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict to justify the hatred of Israel…We don’t want to serve as an excuse. "The things that happen in the Middle East have nothing to do with Israel. Neither in Syria, nor in Iraq, nor in Egypt, nothing. But they accuse us… the thing we can and should do, is end this conflict with the Palestinians, and stop it from continuing to be a justification to hate Israel." In the interview, Peres refused to endorse any candidate contending for the presidency in the United States, noting only that he expects the US to persist with its commitment to Israel's security. 'Iranians, save your country' The president lauded the US and the European Union's sanctions on Iran, but said there is still much to be done to stop what he called "the most corrupted country on earth." He said that the Islamic Republic's negative attributes extend beyond its budding nuclear program. "Moral corruption is more dangerous than financial one," he said. "They hang people without courts. They send arms and money for terror. They cheat, they lie. My god, it's the only country that threatened to destroy another country." On Thursday, Peres said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the international community should empower the citizens of Iran to oust the regime there, and he reiterated that message during the interview. "I would tell the Iranian people, save your own country," he said. "It's in your hands. Don't (rely) upon others. If you are ashamed of the way Iran behaves, and you should be ashamed, to save your own (honor), your own history, your own place in the world, you have to do it. " "I'm not calling for a revolution, I'm calling Iran to get rid of the wrong revolution," he added. "To get rid of an evil government."

Israel warns time is running out before strike on Iran

The Independent --- Economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States can only be allowed a limited time period to prevent Iran from attempting to acquire a nuclear arsenal before a military strike must be contemplated, Israeli leaders have declared. The tough public stance from Tel Aviv comes amid conflicting reports on the readiness of the Israeli military establishment to carry out an attack on Iran. One account claims that Israel's security agencies have concluded that the turmoil predicted from a strike, and the likely response from Tehran, has been widely exaggerated. However, a senior British official told The Independent that the hierarchy of the intelligence service, Mossad, and the armed forces continued to have deep trepidation about conflict in the region. Speaking at the Davos economic summit yesterday, the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, yesterday warned that a situation could be rapidly reached when even "surgical" military action could not block the Tehran regime from getting the bomb. "We will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons," following measures such as the recently announced EU oil embargo, he said. Mr Barak continued, "We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear. It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them". Two months ago, Mr Barak had warned that a war with Iran "will be no picnic". But reports emanating from Israel maintained that the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have now accepted analysis that the scope of possible Iranian retaliation will not be as far reaching as previously thought. A paper published by the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies holds that the fear of Iranian missile attack against Israel has been overblown and would cause only relatively minor damage. Another paper by the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University co-authored by Amos Yadlin, a former chief of military intelligence, argues that Tehran's could only close the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil trading route, as it has threatened to do, for a very short time. In any event, it would also mean that Iran's own oil exports would be stopped. In 1981 Israeli warplanes destroyed the Osirak nuclear site being built by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. In 2007, in another attack, a facility in Syria the UN nuclear watchdog concluded could be a secretly built nuclear reactor was similarly attacked. Iran with nuclear weapons would become almost invulnerable, Major General Amir Eshel, the chief of the Israeli army's planning division has warned in a public meeting in Jerusalem. He recounted that a visiting senior Indian officer was asked why Delhi did so little to retaliate against Pakistan following the Mumbai attacks, which many suspect had been organised by elements close to the Pakistani secret service. "When the other side has a nuclear capability and is prepared to use it, you think twice" the Indian officer is said to have replied. However, the senior British official, who is in close touch with the Israeli security establishment, stressed: "It is the politicians [in Israel] who are in more in favour of a military strike. Mossad and the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) are concerned with the fallout of that on Israel and across the region." The official added that all the indications were that the Iranian leadership has not yet decided whether to actually produce nuclear weapons, but would like to be in a position where they would be able to do so comparatively quickly if necessary. At present the country was between two to three years from producing a conventional nuclear weapon, he added. The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to revive talks with the West, Russia and China and blamed "enemies" for sabotaging previous talks earlier this week. The regime has offered International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors access to visit nuclear sites to ascertain that weapons are not being built, but also stated that the right to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel will not be surrendered.

Senate banking panel to vote on Iran sanctions February 2

(Reuters) The Senate Banking Committee expects to vote on Thursday, February 2 on legislation containing more sanctions on Iran, the panel announced on Friday. Lawmakers want to strengthen the economic chokehold on Iran to discourage Tehran from seeking to build a nuclear bomb. The panel's announcement gave no details of the upcoming legislation, saying these would be released next week. (Reporting By Susan Cornwell)

Iran dialogue 'long overdue': UN nuclear inspector

AFP — The chief UN nuclear inspector said on Saturday that a dialogue with Iran over its atomic programme was long overdue, as he prepared to depart for a visit to the Islamic republic. "We are trying to resolve all the outstanding issues with Iran," International Atomic Energy Agency chief inspector Herman Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport. "In particular we hope that Iran will engage with us on the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme. We are looking forward to the start of a dialogue, a dialogue that is overdue since very long." Nackaerts was leading a six-person IAEA team that was due to hold talks with Iranian officials from Sunday until Tuesday. They were expected to arrive in Tehran in the early hours of Sunday morning. The delegation also included IAEA number two Rafael Grossi, an Argentine, and the IAEA's senior legal official Peri Lynne Johnson, a US citizen, according to diplomats. Nackaerts, who is Belgian, declined to comment on whom he would meet during the trip, which is aimed at clearing up what the IAEA called this week "outstanding substantive issues" on Tehran's nuclear programme. Expectations are however low, with the delegation not expected to be given access to any sites mentioned in a damning IAEA report in November that raised suspicions Iran had done work developing nuclear weapons. Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said on Tuesday that Tehran hoped the trip would "resolve any ambiguity and show (our) transparency and cooperation with the agency." With Iran denying repeatedly that it wants nuclear weapons and dismissing the IAEA report as baseless, the watchdog's chief Yukiya Amano on Friday urged the Islamic republic to show "substantial cooperation" during the visit. The report, which has led to a substantial increase in pressure on Iran from the United States, the European Union and others, detailed a string of areas in which it said Iranian activities were highly suspicious. "We have information that indicates that Iran has engaged in activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," Amano said on Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "We are requesting that Iran clarifies the situation. We proposed to make a mission and they agreed to accept the mission. The preparations have gone well but we need to see what actually happens when the mission arrives." Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted that Tehran is not dodging negotiations and was ready to sit down with world powers Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany for talks. The six powers are waiting for Tehran to reply to an October letter sent by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that stresses that discussions should focus on the "key question" of the Iranian nuclear issue. Previous talks held a year ago in Istanbul ended without progress. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, also in Davos, said that the onus was on Iran to prove its good intentions. "There is no other alternative to addressing this crisis than peaceful resolution through dialogue," Ban told reporters. "Iran should comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions. They have to prove themselves, that their nuclear development programme is genuinely for peaceful purposes which they have not done yet," Ban said. What makes the international community all the more nervous is Tehran's continued defiance of UN Security Council resolutions calling on it to stop enriching uranium until the IAEA is satisfied its programme is peaceful. Earlier this month the IAEA said Iran had begun enriching uranium to 20-percent purity deep inside a mountain bunker at Fordo, taking it significantly closer to the 90-percent mark needed for a nuclear bomb. Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

UN weapons experts going to Tehran

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. nuclear agency is including two senior weapons experts on its next mission to Tehran in an unusually clear statement on the team's prime focus — wresting information from Iranian officials about suspicions the country has secretly worked on atomic arms. Iran has flatly refused to discuss such allegations for more than three years, saying they were based on phony intelligence from the U.S. and others seeking to harm the Islamic Republic. But diplomats on Friday told The Associated Press that the weapons experts were part of the U.N team and that Iran had accepted their inclusion after some initial resistance. That suggested that the Islamic Republic was being more conciliatory on the issue of secret weapons work than usual as the International Atomic Energy Agency mission prepares to fly from Vienna to Tehran Saturday. All six diplomats interviewed said Tehran had not committed to discussing the issue. But three of them added that Iranian officials indicated openness to talking about all topics during the IAEA mission that ends early next week — a departure from standard reluctance by Tehran to exclude give-and-take on the arms allegations. None of the diplomats expressed confidence of a breakthrough. But the Iranian stance at least allows the mission to have some home of making a dent into Iran's wall of silence about its alleged clandestine nuclear weapons work. Any progress on the issue would be significant. Tehran has blocked IAEA attempts for more than three years to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence alleging covert Iranian work on nuclear arms, dismissing the charges as baseless and insisting all its nuclear activities were peaceful and under IAEA purview. Faced with Iranian stonewalling, the IAEA summarized its body of information in November, in a 13-page document drawing on 1,000 pages of intelligence. It stated then for the first time that some of the alleged experiments can have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons. Iran continues to deny the charges and no change in its position is expected during the Tehran talks with IAEA officials. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from outright refusal to talk about them. The diplomats said that the IAEA team was looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of weapons work, inspect documents relating to such suspected work and get commitments for future visits to sites linked to such allegations. As most often the case, the IAEA team is headed by Herman Nackaerts, the chief agency official in charge of the Iran file — but the makeup of the rest of the team reflects the importance attached by the agency to the trip. Two diplomats said Friday that nuclear weapons experts Jack Baute of France and Neville Whiting of Britain would accompany Nackaerts. While both fulfill IAEA functions not directly related to nuclear arms research, they were connected to their nation's weapons programs before they came to the agency. One of the diplomats — who is familiar with the thinking that went into setting up the mission — said their inclusion was meant to send a clear signal to the Iranians. He, like the five other diplomats, asked for anonymity in exchange for discussing privileged information, Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's right hand — another indication of the importance the agency has attached to the trip. The three-day visit comes as anxiety grows daily about Iran's nuclear capacities — and what it plans to do with them. Since the discovery in 2002 that Iran was secretly working on uranium enrichment, the nation has expanded that operation to the point where it has thousands of centrifuges churning out enriched material — the potential source of both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material. Iran says it is enriching only to generate energy. But it has also started producing uranium at a higher level than its main stockpile — a move that would jump start the creation of highly enriched, weapons grade uranium, should it chose to go that route. And it is moving its higher-enriched operation into an underground bunker that it says is safe from attack. Israel in particular is concerned by Iran's expanding enrichment capacities — and increasing evidence of secret nuclear weapons work. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a "surgical" military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Amid fears that Israel is nearing a decision to attack Iran's nuclear program, Barak said tougher international sanctions are needed against Tehran's oil and banks so that "we all will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons program." The United Nations has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran, but veto-wielding Russia and China say they see no need for additional punitive measures. That has left the U.S. and the European Union to try to pressure other countries to follow their lead and impose even tougher sanctions. "We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear," Barak told reporters during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. "It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them," he said, alluding to increased Iranian efforts to move their enrichment work deep underground. Separately at Davos, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged a resumption of dialogue between Western powers and Iran on the nuclear issue. He said Friday that Tehran must comply with Security Council resolutions and prove conclusively that its nuclear program is not directed at making arms.

Parliament Finalizes Draft Bill on Cutting Oil Supplies to EU

TEHRAN (FNA)- Members of the Iranian parliament finalized a draft bill on cutting the country's oil exports to the European states in retaliation for the EU's oil ban against Tehran, a senior legislator said on Saturday. "The bill has 4 articles, including one which states that the Islamic Republic of Iran will cut all oil exports to the European states until they end their oil sanctions against the country," Vice-Chairman of the parliament's Energy Commission Nasser Soudani told FNA. Elaborating on the other parts of the draft bill, he said another article requires the government to stop imports of goods from those countries which are a party to these sanctions against Iran. After months of debates, the EU member states eventually reached an agreement in their meeting on January 23 to sanction oil imports from Iran and freeze the assets of Iran's Central Bank within the EU. Following the decision, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton claimed that the sanctions are aimed at pressuring Iran to return to talks over its nuclear program. Despite Ashton's claims, Iran has always underlined its preparedness to resume talks with the West but has meantime stressed that it will never accept any precondition for such talks. The Iranian oil ministry in a statement last Monday downplayed the effects of the US and EU's unilateral oil sanctions against Tehran, and said such embargoes will merely harm the European economies and oil consuming countries. European sanctions against Iran's oil exports will affect world economy and hurt European and non-European countries, the statement said. "The hurried decision by EU states to use oil as a political tool will have a negative impact on the world economy and specially on the recovering European economies which are fighting to overcome the global financial crisis," it added. The statement continued that since just 18 percent of oil produced by Iran is exported to European countries, Islamic Republic can easily replace new markets with the European market.

Don’t Turn the Strait of Hormuz into a Disaster

(Rooz Online)Those in Iran who are turning the Strait of Hormuz into an issue are perhaps not aware that if the waterway turns into a conflict, its final chapter will be very different from the way the eight year Iran-Iraq war ended by drinking a chalice of poison. Iranian right-wingers who dream of supremacy and grab any megaphone to scream about the Strait are probably doing it because the waterway has most likely become an election issue. They may be trying to send this message to the world: “We control this country, and not our domestic rivals,” and, “If a deal needs to be made, you need to make it with us.” Recent Battles at the Strait According to statistics from Lloyds of London, during the tanker war in the Persian Gulf between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, some 546 commercial ships were attacked at the Strait which resulted in the death of 430 sailors. In the May of 1987 US guided-missile frigate USS Stark was hit with two Iraqi anti-ship Exocet missiles near the Strait of Hormuz which turned into one of the mysteries of the war in the Persian Gulf. Four months earlier, Lebanese daily Alsharq had revealed that the US and Israel had sold anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in return of its assistance in freeing the American hostages in Lebanon. The Stark was hit to give the US a warning and drag it into the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. On April 1988, US guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine as it entered the Strait of Hormuz but did not sink. US frogmen found new mines bearing the inscription of “Iran Ajr” on them. In response to this, the US Navy launched Operation Praying Mantis. Through its execution, first the Sassan oil platform and the oil facilities at Siri island, both belonging to Iran, were destroyed. Then Iranian missile boats Sahand and Joshan were hit and sunk, killing 56 sailors. The Iranian frigate Sabalan too was hit with missiles and disabled. Two months later, US guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger plane killing all 290 on board. Examining the Threats to Shut the Strait of Hormuz In reality, the provocation to close the strait and pitting the international community against Iran was a military trap designed by Iraq against Iran. This is why even though Iraq attacked ships destined for Iran in the Persian Gulf, Iran did not respond for the first four years. Even during the height of the tanker war, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz declined only by 25 percent, but was never completely halted. The main part of the two shipping channels of the Strait of Hormuz, in and out of the Persian Gulf passes through Iranian waters. A look at international maps of the Strait makes it clear that even though the boundaries between Oman and Iran have been delineated, the Strait of Hormuz belongs to Oman. By disrupting the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, one should expect a response from the international community. One should note that by challenging the Strait, the administration of Iranian Greater and Lesser Tomb islands, which are claimed by the UAE, may also be lost from Iran. It is also possible that the administration of the Strait may be handed over to an international committee in which Iran will have no role to play. Just two hundred years ago, the Iranian kings of the Qajar dynasty, lost significant parts of Iran’s northern territory to Tsarist Russia through the Golestan and Turkmanchai treaties. Iranians continue to be vengeful of the incompetence of Iranian kings. Similarly, future Iranian generations will not forgive those who through ignorance use security issues and the waterways of the country to battle their domestic opponents or who try to oppress the Iranian nation through fake justifications of crises at the Strait of Hormuz.

In Iran, a marriage implodes, with consequences

By Rene Rodriguez rrodriguez@MiamiHerald.com At the start of A Separation, an Iranian couple appears before a judge to request a divorce. Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moadi) have irreconcilable differences: She wants to move abroad before their exit visas expire for the sake of their daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi). He is unwilling to relocate because his father is ill with Alzheimer’s and cannot take care of himself. But Simin would rather break up their marriage than stay put, because she doesn’t want her child to grow up under what she calls “these circumstances.” What, exactly, does she mean by that? Writer-director Asghar Farhadi uses uncommon subtlety in A Separation to show how the cultural limitations and class differences inherent in any society can lead to chaos and tragedy. This family just happens to be Iranian, which means that when Nader hires a nurse, Razieh (Sareh Bayat), to help tend to his father, she must call her religious leader and ask permission before she can touch the old man to help him out of his soiled clothes. Razieh is also pregnant, but she hasn’t told her husband (Shahab Hosseini). She keeps many secrets from him, some more innocent than others. With astonishing insight and wisdom, the movie depicts how the simple decisions we make on the spur of the moment can sometimes have momentous, unintended repercussions. Most of the Iranian films that make it into U.S. theaters tend to be too small and precise to break out beyond the art house circuit. But A Separation is the first one I’ve seen with the potential to cross over into the mainstream. The movie has such a profound understanding of human behavior, family ties and the way ordinary people respond when they’re forced into a moral quandary, I can’t imagine anyone not being transfixed by it. By making his story specific to Iranian society, Farhadi has ensured his movie can travel the world. A Separation uses a clean style of storytelling that emphasizes faces and bodies, and right from its opening moments, when the husband and wife plea their cases directly into the camera (they’re speaking to a judge who is heard but not seen), the movie presents each character’s point of view clearly and fairly – something difficult to do when no one agrees with anyone else. Halfway through the film, in the midst of a heated argument, Nader does something so unremarkable that we barely even notice. Later, his seeming trivial act brings criminal charges and the possibility of a prison sentence. A lot of romantic comedies are built around the premise of a white lie that the characters extend for the sake of the plot: If someone just stopped and told the truth, the movie would be over. In A Separation, due to the reality of Iranian society and its laws, telling the truth is not always an option. There are no good guys or bad guys in A Separation: There are only people, trying to do the best they can for their families. The slow inevitability of disaster that starts to loom over the characters — a disaster that intensifies and grows worse as the movie unfolds — is particularly fascinating because the crisis is born out of everyday circumstance and ordinary behavior, not some elaborate twist of plot. The movie is precise and exact about its setting, but this story could easily happen to you. Much of A Separation takes place in confined spaces: Nader’s middle-class apartment, the chambers of a courthouse, a hallway where the fateful act takes place. Farhadi uses his camera to emphasize the spaces between people and their spatial proximity to each other: He wants to convey the physical realities of his characters as well as the emotional ones. That’s the sort of detail many filmmakers often overlook, because it doesn’t seem important. But this wise, humane movie wants us to empathize with its characters, and the more we understand their everyday reality, the deeper we’ll be drawn into their lives. A Separation succeeds so well that the end result is pulverizing. Sometimes, in an attempt to do the best we can for the people we love, we end up wreaking irreparable damage.

Antisemitic Statements, Publications by Iranian Regime

Alongside the Holocaust denial policy promoted by the Iranian regime, its leaders also make statements and publish writings expressing hatred toward the Jews, especially those in Israel, while denying Israel's right to exist. Regime officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claim that the Jews spread corruption in the world and that they are "evil, greedy, thieves, and murderers," and "filthy criminals who [only] appear to be human." Source: The MEMRI Blog

Syria Importing Iranian Snipers to Murder Protesters

(BusinessInsider) Syria is bringing in snipers from Iran and Lebanon to help crush a resistance movement that continues to threaten President Bashar al-Assad’s violent regime, reports The Times (via The Australian). Mahmoud Haj Hamad, a senior Syrian government defector, told the newspaper that state security forces were importing the trained marksmen as “military consultants” to murder anti-government protestors, after the sharp-shooters successfully suppressed uprisings in their own countries. Hamad, who fled Syria’s treasury department last month, said the reinforcements were being paid through a slush fund that is being topped up with U.S. dollars flown in from Iran — the same stash that state forces use to pay the violent Shabiha gangs that terrorize Syria’s streets. The news comes after two days of fighting in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, left more than 50 people dead and scores more wounded, according to Associated Press (via CBS). The city reportedly suffered a big jump in sectarian kidnappings and slayings, as Assad loyalists fired at residential buildings with guns and mortars. Fighting has become so lethal that the U.N. has stopped updating its death toll from Syria’s crackdown, which was last estimated to have cost more 5400 lives, France 24 reports. But Hamad said Syria can’t afford to keep the “thousands” of foreign fighters on its payroll, who each earn at least $100 a day. “The Syrian economy has collapsed – it won’t last another month,” he told the Times. “In February, I believe it will fall apart. Iran can’t keep giving them money, because their own finances are not that good.”

Syria crisis: UN Security Council mulls Assad measures

BBC - The UN Security Council has met to consider a draft resolution against Syria's government. Activists and the Arab League urged the UN to take stronger action after a surge in violence this week in which dozens of people have died. The UK, France and Germany drafted a resolution with Arab states, supporting the League's call for President Bashar al-Assad to hand power to a deputy. Russia, an ally of Mr Assad, has said it will not back the text. Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters after the meeting in New York that the draft resolution was unacceptable, but Moscow was ready to engage in further talks. He said Russia had set out its "red lines" and that the resolution should not contain any threat of sanctions or an arms embargo. The draft "not only ignored our red lines but also added some new elements which we find unacceptable as a matter of principle," AFP news agency reported him as saying. "The Security Council cannot go about imposing solutions in crisis situations in various countries of the world." The BBC's UN correspondent, Barbara Plett, says Russia will not support any measure that could mean regime change. Moscow was also concerned about a warning of further measures if Syria does not comply with the resolution, fearing that this could open the door to outside intervention, our correspondent says. Russia and China vetoed a previous draft resolution against Syria late last year. Western nations have been hoping that Arab League support for this resolution will soften Russian resistance. 'Long overdue' The current draft, presented to the council by Morocco, largely supports a plan outlined by the Arab League earlier this week calling for Mr Assad to hand authority to a deputy, who would form a national unity government with the opposition within two months. The draft resolution calls for further measures if the Syrian government does not comply with the call for political transition. The council will not vote on the resolution until next week. "There is now a chance that the Security Council will finally take a clear stand on Syria. That is long overdue,'' said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. The French ambassador to the UN, Gerrard Araud described the situation in Syria as a major crisis. "The country is sinking into civil war. We are desperately looking for a political solution," he said. "We have here the League of Arab States which is proposing a solution. So our reaction is simply to support it, but again, there is nothing else." Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, expressed anger towards the states that drafted the resolution. "They are talking about my country without consulting us, without sharing with us their concerns, their remarks," he said. "They deal with us as if we are a former colony, that we should subjugate ourselves to their will. They are wrong and they will be disappointed." Growing violence The UN meeting comes amid a spike in violence across Syria, with activists reporting 135 people killed in the past two days. Gen Mustafa al-Dabi, head of the Arab League's monitoring mission, said violence had soared "in a significant way" in recent days. Earlier in the week, the general had claimed that the Arab League mission had helped reduce the level of violence in Syria. Opposition forces have set up checkpoints in parts of the capital, and correspondents say forces loyal to Mr Assad appear unable to maintain control. The UN has conceded it cannot keep track of the death toll, which it estimated as more than 5,400 people since the unrest began last March. The government says it is fighting "terrorists and armed gangs" and claims that some 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed.

Syrian State Media Says 7 Soldiers Killed In Ambush

RFE/RL -- Syrian state media says that seven soldiers were killed in an ambush as they rode in a bus near Damascus today. The official SANA news agency said the attack was carried out by a "terrorist group," the phrase Damascus uses to describe insurgents. The attack comes as insurgent groups composed of deserters from the Syrian Army have joined the antigovernment protest movement and begun striking back at government troops in response to violent crackdowns. Separately, Syrian acitivist say security forces killed 11 people near Damascus today. Earlier, insurgents said they are holding seven Iranians hostage and will not release them until the government frees a rebel army officer and stops military operations in Homs, a center of revolt in Syria's 10-month-old uprising. A video released by the Farouq Battalion, part of the loosely organized rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), shows the seven Iranians, unshaven and wearing black shirts. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video, but the men's faces match those in pictures posted on Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency website. Iran, a non-Arab Shi'ite Muslim power, is the closest regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. The deputy chief of the FSA, Malek al-Kurdi, said the Iranians were arrested in Homs and that five are military experts from Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps. Rebels who spoke to Reuters via Skype said the two other men taken in a second abduction were civilians. Iran's Mehr news agency said all seven men were engineers working at a power plant in Homs.

Khamenei’s likely choice as Iran’s next president

In May 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini pre-empted any attempts that the former Shah’s followers might make to overthrow the Revolutionary government by founding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Swiftly the Guards spread their command centers around the country. One of the members of the command center in Kerman was Ghasem Soleimani, who has now become one of the leading figures in the covert conflict between the USA and Israel on the one side and Iran on the other. This pre-eminence is linked to the fact the Quds force will probably become significant should an asymmetric warfare develop. Ghasem Soleimani rose to prominence after the Guards were dispatched from Kerman to Mahabad to quash an uprising by Kurdish dissidents in the Kurdish region of western Iran just a few months after the Revolution in 1979. While Soleimani’s role in the suppression is unclear, the armed forces actions there were brutal and he was subsequently put in charge of the Guard base in Kerman. During the eight-year war between Iraq and Iran which began on Sept. 22, 1980 when Iraqi forces invaded Iran with the hope of toppling its regime, Soleimani was instrumental in training and dispatching several Guard battalions from Kerman to the war front. As with many young Iranians in the IRGC, Soleimani found the mission of their lives. Soleimani played a major role in most of the important operations mounted by Iran, whether successful and unsuccessful. The war with Iraq finally ended in August 1988.The IRGC commanders all became commissioned officers of Iran’s military. Most of the top commanders such as Ghasem Soleimani were given the rank of brigadier general. In 1989 Soviet forces withdrew in defeat from Afghanistan leaving Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to compete for influence there. At the beginning, the Quds force, which originally was affiliated with the Office of Liberation Movements after the 1979 Revolution, were deployed in support of the Hazra Shia group “Hezbe Wahdat”, Party of Unity and the Shah Masoud. They soon became a branch of the Guards, taking over an important role in arming and training resistance to the prolonged Israeli occupation of Lebanon in 1982. Indeed, they were instrumental in training and equipping the Lebanese Hizbullah once they were officially founded. Quds activity abroad is thought to have expanded in the 1990s. It is assumed they were involved in bombing the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996. It is sure that they took part in some capacity in the war in the Balkans in the early 1990s, even supplying Muslim combatants with arms to defend themselves against Serbian forces with American tacit approval. It has been reported that Soleimani commanded these Quds Force operations in Bosnia. Once the U.S. and the British had invaded Iraq in March 2003, Iran was faced with the threat of American military bases being established permanently in Iraq. This prompted the Iranian regime to exert greater influence over various Iraqi Shia groups that were its allies in Iraq. This influence involved widespread penetration of Iraqi society by thousands of IRGC and Quds force personnel, who set up networks and fed them with huge sums of money. However, in 2008, Ghasem Soleimani was forced to help broker a ceasefire in Qom between the Mahdi Army of the Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada-al-Sadr and government military forces backed by the USA when the situation seemed to be slipping into chaos. This is not to say that the Quds Force and Soleimani have withdrawn from activities outside Iran. They have been accused of assisting President Assad’s brutal crackdown on the popular rising in Syria since June 2011. The United States has among other terrorist activities, accused the Quds Force of attempting to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington in October 2011. Clearly this throws the spotlight on the role that Soleimani plays in Iranian operations abroad, especially since rumors are rife that he may be chosen by Khamenei as candidate for the presidential election set for June 2013. The other key rival for the post is thought to be Tehran Mayor Ghalibaf, the former commander of the Guard air force who also ran in 2005. However, Ghasem Soleimani is the most powerful commander of Quds force loyal to Ayatollah Khamenei, giving him a solid standing in Tehran. By Fariborz Saremi Freepressers

Saudi Prince Discusses Kingdom's Iran Problem

Fox NEWS – Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's former head of general intelligence, was on a panel to assess the whole concept of globalization at the World Economic Forum here, but we sat down with him to talk very specifically about his region. "Two hundred dollars a barrel oil is not going to benefit anyone," he said, talking about the standoff with Iran and the fallout that could come from the sanctions recently placed on its oil sector. "What we need to do is get away from the hyperbole and threatening stances." The prince once worked as a diplomat for the kingdom, but now that he no longer wears that hat, he is free to express what he feels about his particularly troublesome neighbor, Iran. Beyond resolving the nuclear problem, I asked, what would Saudi Arabia like from Iran? "We want to see them stop interfering in our affairs,” he said. “They interfere in Iraq, they interfere in Syria, they interfere in Bahrain, they interfere in Saudi Arabia, they occupy the islands of the UAE. And then they tell us to come and talk with them. How are we going to talk if they do these things?" But the prince believes Iran is feeling singled out in the whole nuclear story and that a “weapons of mass destruction free zone” in the Middle East is the way forward. He would like to see the United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution guaranteeing: -- a security umbrella for all the countries in the Middle East and Gulf region; -- economic aid available to those countries that want to pursue a peaceful nuclear energy program; -- economic and diplomatic sanctions placed upon countries that do not sign on to a deal; -- military sanctions (i.e. missile strikes) against any country seen to be developing a nuclear weapon, so they can expect dire consequences if they go after a bomb. The bottom line, he believes, is that Iran has called for a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East, and if Israel gets rid of its weapons, Iran will fall into line. "We have a saying, 'Follow the liar to his doorstep,'” he said. In other words, call Iran's bluff on this one. The prince says he thinks there has to be a level playing field and Iran shouldn't feel it is being treated differently from everyone else. And nobody would be happier than the powers in Riyadh to see this all resolved. "We don't want to be sandwiched between a nuclear state, which is Israel, and a potential nuclear state, which is Iran," he said. The prince said he would love for things to be good with the Saudis’ Persian neighbors. "Geography is the ruler here. They are our neighbors. We would love to have good relations with them. Imagine the wonderful things that could happen. The cross-Gulf culture and trade. What benefit it could bring to the area!" World leaders are assembled in Davos to talk about saving the euro, the currency of a union that is meant to guarantee peace on the continent. In the same way, Israel could in theory be part of a powerful Arab-Persian regional economic block. The prince says he doesn't agree, but he doesn't necessarily disagree, either. "With our brain power, and Jewish wealth,” he says, “we can do wonders."

Barak: World must act against Iran before it's too late

The Associated PressDefense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a "surgical" military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Amid fears that Israel is nearing a decision to attack Iran's nuclear program, Barak said tougher international sanctions are needed against Tehran's oil and banks so that "we all will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons program." Iran insists its atomic program is only aimed at producing energy and research, but has repeatedly refused to consider giving up its ability to enrich uranium. "We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear. And even the American president and opinion leaders have said that no option should be removed from the table and Iran should be blocked from turning nuclear," Barak old reporters during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. "It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them," he said. Barak called it "a challenge for the whole world" to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran but stopped short of confirming any action that could further stoke Washington's concern about a possible Israeli military strike. Separately, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged a resumption of dialogue between Western powers and Iran on their nuclear dispute. He said Friday that Tehran must comply with Security Council resolutions and prove conclusively that its nuclear development program is not directed to making arms. "The onus is on Iran," said Ban, speaking at a press conference. "They have to prove themselves that their nuclear development program is genuinely for peaceful purposes, which they have not done yet." Ban expressed concern at the most recent report of the International Atomic Energy Agency that strongly suggested that Iran's nuclear program, which it long has claimed is for development of power generation, has a military intent. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said at a Davos session that "we do not have that much confidence if Iran has declared everything" and its best information "indicates that Iran has engaged in activities relevant to nuclear explosive devices." "For now they do not have the capacity to manufacture the fuel," he said. "But in the future, we don't know." In spite of his tough words to Iran, Ban said that dialogue among the "three-plus-three" … Germany, France and Britain plus Russia, China and the United States … is the path forward. "There is no other alternative for addressing this crisis than peaceful ... resolution through dialogue," said Ban. Ban noted that there have been a total of five Security Council resolutions so far on the Iranian nuclear program, four calling for sanctions. As tensions have been on the rise recently, some political leaders in Israel and the United States have been speaking increasingly of the possibility of a military strike to eliminate, or at least slow down, what they allege is a determined effort by Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Iran arrests writers and bloggers in run-up to elections

AUTHORITIES in Iran have arrested at least half a dozen journalists and bloggers, in what appears to be a pre-emptive campaign of intimidation to thwart protests surrounding parliamentary elections scheduled for March. The arrests, including those of two prominent women whose blog posts are widely read in the country, were not reported by the official media. Rights groups and people who know the detained journalists said the government apparently wanted news of the arrests to spread informally, to heighten the atmosphere of fear. Advertisement: Story continues below It was unclear what specific charges, if any, had been lodged against those held. None seemed to have been politically active or to have published anything that might be considered seditious since the last big Iranian government crackdown last February, when authorities arrested a large number of journalists to subvert any celebration of the revolutions then sweeping Tunisia and Egypt. The government could not ''come out publicly and name them or charge them with anything because they can't justify why they're holding them'', said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, an advocacy group in New York. Friends of the two arrested women, Parastou Dokouhaki and Marzieh Rasouli, have started a website to publicise their situation. Ms Dokouhaki, a rights activist whose blog had a wide following, has been in Tehran's Evin Prison since January 15. The website said Ms Rasouli, an award-winning journalist and social blogger, was arrested on January 17. Mehrad Vaezinejad, a BBC contributor and friend of both women, said the timing of the arrests and the dearth of official information reflected the authorities' wish to ''make reporting inside the country very difficult during the 2012 elections'' and ''make an example out of Marzieh and Parastou''. Source: NEW YORK TIMES