US bases surrounding IranProposed by 47 US Representatives on July 22nd, House Resolution 1553 is flagrantly providing explicit support for military strikes against Iran. We are now witnessing the legalization and industrialization of another war, one which will set the entire region ablaze. ››read more

Spurred by its energy needs, China has undertaken a range of investment projects in Iran, gradually filling in the void left over by Western firms forced out by international sanctions. With more than 100 Chinese companies present in Iran, it has built Tehran’s subway, power stations, ferrous metals smelting factories and petrochemical plants. ››read more

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China said on Friday that it did not approve of tougher new sanctions imposed by the European Union on Iran, and welcomed Tehran's offer to return to negotiations on a nuclear fuel swap without conditions. ››read more

Tehran AgreementTurkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said earlier this week, that the Islamic Republic is prepared to stop enriching uranium to the nearly-20 percent level required to fabricate fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR), if others agree to provide new, finished fuel for the TRR, in line with the Joint Declaration that Iran negotiated with Brazil and Turkey in May. Speaking at a press conference in Berlin with his German counterpart, Davutoğlu said that “another important message given by [Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr] Mottaki during his visit to Turkey [this past weekend, to meet with Davutoğlu and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim] was that if the Tehran deal is signed and Iran is provided with the necessary fuel for its research activities, then they will not continue enriching uranium to 20 percent”. ››read more

Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid ship headed for Gaza may prove to be the greatest strategic error the government has ever made. Like the Soweto riots in South Africa in 1976, or Bloody Sunday – the American civil rights march on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, where police opened fire and killed civilians – the Mavi Marmora affair crossed a red line. It has triggered an international wave of condemnation, expressing a shift in attitude toward Israel. The hope is that this international outrage, flanked by growing anti-government dissent inside the country, will provoke an identity crisis among the elite and people of Israel, shake up the political kaleidoscope and allow for a viable pro-peace force to emerge. Unless this occurs, new Israeli aggression, including against Iran, will remain high on their immediate agenda. ››read more

"It is a conflict of worldviews. A titanic confrontation between a small country which has committed itself to a certain model based on its own historic past and religious commitments and a combined force of the Western powers bent upon unleashing an unending torrent of abuse and aggression against us. No matter what happens in certain areas of our relationship with the West, the Western world is never going to accept Iran unless we give up everything that we have achieved through the Islamic revolution."
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Rami Khouri Much of the case against Iran’s alleged desire to obtain nuclear weapons is based on fragmentary and inconclusive bits of information and a great deal of speculation and ideological distemper, coupled with the hysteria common in Washington when pro-Israel lobby groups use their influence with American member of Congress who are at once mostly ignorant of Middle Eastern realities and deeply vulnerable to electoral blackmail. The evidence to accuse, pressure, sanction, distrust and threaten Iran is thin as silk thread. In some light conditions, it is alluring and worth examining further; in others, it disappears completely.

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Tehran AgreementIran’s third party enrichment deal does not appear to be dead yet, as officials have greeted the reiteration of Iran’s promise to halt 20 percent enrichment of uranium if they were able to complete the proposed fuel swap with surprising optimism. ››read more

"We are against any form of developing nuclear weapons in any corner of the world, including Iran," Zarifi said at a news conference in Dushanbe.
"However, we fully support Iran's right to research in the nuclear energy sphere for peaceful purposes," he said.
Ties between Tajikistan and Iran have been improving, he said. ››read more

Speaker of the Iranian Parlament, Ali Larijani in an interview with Euronews on the latest sanctions.Ali Larijani ››read more

WASHINGTON – In a July 25 story, The Associated Press reported that former CIA Director Michael Hayden told CNN's "State of the Union" that U.S. military action against Iran now "seems inexorable." A spokeswoman for Hayden responded that he made his reference to Iran's push toward acquiring a nuclear program and not to military action. ››read more

This use of the WikiLeaks documents brings back some old memories, of a long time ago (March 2006) in a galaxy far far away when the Pentagon posted a massive set of captured Iraqi documents on the internet without context. Analysts dived into them, mostly searching for a smoking gun on Iraqi WMD or ties to al-Qaeda. ››read more

Unfortunately, the world learned in 2003 that the United States will sometimes start a war. Now is the time for Americans to remind themselves that it is never in the interests of the United States to do so. There is a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue—particularly if the United States is willing to trade acceptance of uranium enrichment on Iranian soil for tighter international monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities and abandon the pursuit of coercive regime change in Tehran. ››read more

Ahmadinejad"We do not support any group," Ahmadinejad said when asked by CBS television in interview late Monday whether Tehran provided aid to Afghan rebels. "We just and only support the Afghan people. We support and we want to strengthen security in Afghanistan. "And we think the Afghan people should run their own country," he added. "We think the root cause is related to the intervention of the United States and NATO. It's been for about 20 years that the Americans are interfering directly in Afghanistan," the Iranian leader said. ››read more

"I'd argue we've not seriously tried negotiation," says Gary Sick, a former member of the US National Security Council. "We said to Iran, when the Obama administration first came in, we're ready to negotiate. And Iran was slow in responding, going through a political crisis of its own, and we said 'well, we can't do that', so we walked away from it." ››read more

Kaveh L Afrasiabi

The European Union (EU) on Monday adopted a new round of sanctions against Iran that, if implemented, will have serious implications not only for the EU as the Islamic Republic's largest trading partner, but also for its energy security. ››read more

war with Iran The United States and its allies are rethinking their commitment to Afghanistan by the week. But an attack on Iran would return all calculations to ground zero.
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MottakiIran Sunday expressed its readiness to meet with the Vienna Group and also asked for Turkey and Brazil to sit in on any future talks with the group. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made the statement at a press conference here on Sunday evening after trilateral talks with his Brazilian and Turkish counterparts earlier in the day. ››read more

The European Union will hit Iran with tough sanctions against its vital oil and gas industry in a bid to lure Tehran back to the negotiating table over its disputed nuclear program. "This (package of sanctions) is about applying pressure, but applying pressure in order to bring the Iranians to the table to talk," a European diplomat said. ››read more

Iran's official news agency says an explosion at a petrochemical factory on Iran's largest oil terminal has killed four people. The Sunday report said high pressure in the central boiler of the factory led to an explosion and fire at the facility on Kharg island in the Persian Gulf. ››read more