Like Israel, the United States has said it considers military force a last resort to prevent Iran using its uranium enrichment to make a bomb. Iran insists its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.

“It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than to use military force,” Ambassador Dan Shapiro said in remarks about Iran aired by Israel’s Army Radio on Thursday.

“But that doesn’t mean that option is not fully available – not just available, but it’s ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready,” said Shapiro, who the radio station said had spoken on Tuesday.

The United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany have been using sanctions and negotiations to try to persuade Iran to curb its uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for reactors, medical isotopes, and, at higher levels of purification, fissile material for warheads.

New talks opened in Istanbul last month and resume on May 23 in Baghdad.

Israel, which is widely assumed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, feels threatened by the prospect of its arch-foe Iran going nuclear and has hinted it could launch preemptive war.

But many analysts believe the United States alone has the military clout to do lasting damage to Iran’s nuclear program.

In January, Shapiro told an Israeli newspaper the United States was “guaranteeing that the military option is ready and available to the president at the moment he decides to use it”.

“I would like to be beside the Iranian athletes at the Olympic Games in London to support them, but (the British) have issues with my presence,” Ahmadinejad said, without offering further explanation.

“The enemies do not want our athletes to win medals, but our young people shall be present at the Olympic Games and, like Arash, give new reasons to take pride in Islamic Iran,” he said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

Arash is a mythical hero of ancient Persia.

According to legend, he was instructed to shoot an arrow that would determine the country’s border. He exerted all his strength to shoot the arrow a great distance, but was destroyed in the process.

Relations between Tehran and London are at an all-time low.

London closed its embassy in Tehran after a rampage of the building by Islamist students in November 2011.

Britain was one of the first European countries to adopt sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank to put pressure on the Islamic republic for its disputed nuclear programme.

And in February 2011, Iran protested to the International Olympic Committee against the official logo of the 2012 Olympics, claiming it was “racist”, an accusation the London Organising Committee described as “surprising”.

According to Tehran, one could read the word “Zion” in the logo. The organisers defended the logo, saying it was “modern, bold and flexible” and could able to appeal to a younger audience.

The draft report describes three seizures of Iranian weapons shipments, including two bound for Syria, within the last year, a Western diplomat told CNN on Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to release details to the media.

The report was drafted by a panel of experts and submitted to the U.N. Security Council’s committee that monitors sanctions against Iran, the official said.

The revelations came as al-Assad, in a rare interview, told Russia 24 that weapons in the hands of rebels were flowing into the country from neighboring Lebanon and Turkey.

“You can’t simply close the borders and stop the smuggling, but you can reduce the flow,” he said.

Iran accused of arming Syria Syrian refugees flee to Turkey Syrian man helps clear landmines Ajami: Syria is Obama’s Rwanda

In recent days, violence has spilled over into Lebanon and Turkey where thousands of Syrians have fled. At least one person was killed and an undetermined number were wounded Thursday in renewed clashes in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between factions supporting and opposing the uprising in Syria, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

Al-Assad put the blame instead on the so-called Arab Spring that saw popular revolutions topple the governments of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

“If we take into consideration the developments in Syria, the events in Libya and other countries, for the leaders of these countries, it’s becoming clear that this is not ‘Spring’ but chaos.”

The successful Arab Spring movements inspired the uprising in Syria that began in March 2011 with protests calling for political reforms and quickly devolved into a revolt with an armed opposition amid a brutal crackdown by al-Assad’s forces.

The United Nations estimates that at least 9,000 people have died in the 14-month crisis, while opposition groups put the death toll at more than 11,000.

CNN cannot independently verify reports of deaths and violence because the Syrian government has severely restricted access by international media.

At least four people died Thursday when Syrian forces opened fire in Daraya outside the capital city of Damascus, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition network that collects casualty reports and organizes anti-government protests.

Al-Assad blamed the violence on terrorists, including those who labeled themselves members of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

But opposition groups, including members of the rebel army, say al-Assad’s government has been trying to mar their efforts with false accusations of links to terrorism.

While the rebel army says its ranks are populated by those who defected from Syria security forces, al-Assad labeled them criminals.

“It’s not an army, first of all, and it’s not free because they get their arms from different foreign countries,” he said in the interview.

“That’s why they are not free at all — they are a bunch of criminals who have been violating the law for years and have been sentenced in various criminal cases. There are religious extremist elements among them, like those from al Qaeda.”

Al-Assad dismissed the enormous international pressure put on him to end the violence and step down, vowing that Syria would not bow on any issue.

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have targeted Syria with a number of economic sanctions targeting al-Assad and his government.

Al-Assad acknowledged the sanctions have had an adverse affect on Syria’s economy.

“The world doesn’t consist just of Europe and the United States, and we find alternatives which allow us to overcome these difficulties. We can support small and mid-sized business, the basic element of our economy is agriculture, and it’s hard to affect it with sanctions,” al-Assad said.

Al-Assad also called a boycott of recent parliamentary elections by the opposition a failure.

“It seems to some people that if we conducted the reforms earlier, the situation would have been better now. It’s not right for one reason — terrorists spit on reforms. They are not fighting for reforms, they are fighting to bring terror,” he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government distanced itself from a Washington Post report that said more and better weapons are making their way in to the hand of Syrian rebels.

The newspaper, citing unnamed officials and opposition activists, reported the arms are being paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States.

“The United States has made a decision to provide nonlethal support to civilian members of the opposition,” Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman told reporters Wednesday.

“…But with regard to any assertions with regard to lethal, we are not involved in that.”

The United States has expressed reservations about arming rebels, citing division among the opposition.

Meanwhile, division among Syrian opposition groups deepened Thursday with the Syrian National Council, widely perceived by Western countries as the primary coalition for the opposition, coming under fire by a leading opposition activist group.

The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition network, called the national council a “failure,” saying it will withdraw from the council. The council has been under fire for failing to unify the opposition groups and bring in international support.

(CNN)

The issue has stirred controversy in recent years between Iranians and Arabs, who each say their name is the only one that should be used.

A Google representative told the BBC it did not name every place in the world.

He said the company also did not want to take any political stance in response to the angry Iranian reaction.

He was unable to provide an example of a similar case of a missing landmark.

‘No historical justification’

The fact that the blue space between Iran and Arab Gulf states is now nameless on Google Maps shows just how heated the issue has become.

Iranians say there is absolutely no historical justification for calling it anything but the Persian Gulf.

But there has been increasing pressure from Arab sources to call it the Arabian Gulf – or at least to use both names.

Several years ago, Iranians launched an internet offensive after National Geographic did just that.

As a result, anyone searching for the Arabian Gulf on Google found a website saying it did not exist.

Still on Google Earth

A number of Iranians have posted on twitter a link to Google Maps with the question: “Where’s the Persian Gulf?”

They could look at Google Earth – another interactive world map provided by the internet giant.

It still appears there – as does the alternative, the Arabian Gulf.

(BBC)

Soleimani Nia had written a letter of protest to the authorities and was told that it would be considered only if he ended his hunger strike, the source said.

For this reason, he has halted his protest for one week to see if the authorities will look at the letter, the contents of which are not known, the source said.

In the course of his 28-day hunger strike, Nia has needed medical treatment on one occasion and remains in a prison hospital ward.

He will be able to consume only non-solid food for a while because of the effects of the hunger strike on his digestive system.

The last time he spoke to his family was a few days ago and very briefly, according to the source.

Nia was in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison, notorious for its harsh conditions, for some of his time in custody, the source said last month. He was then moved to a general section of the prison.

Associates have previously described Nia as being physically delicate.

Firoozeh Dumas, an Iranian-American author whose best-selling book “Funny in Farsi” Soleimani Nia translated for the Iranian audience, described her friend as “a very gentle soul.”

(CNN)

Khamenei’s expected majority is likely to mean a tougher final year for Ahmadinejad in his second and last term.

With reformists mostly sidelined and opposition leaders under house arrest, the vote is a test of the popularity of Khamenei’s clerical establishment rather than an opportunity for fundamental change in the way the Islamic Republic is run.

Sixty-five of parliament’s 290 seats are being contested after Khamenei loyalists led the first round in March. More than 50 percent of seats have already been filled by new members, including a large number of independents, so the Iranian Majles is undergoing an extensive face-lift.

The election will have no major impact on Tehran’s nuclear row with the West or its foreign affairs, which are already determined by Khamenei.

Its significance lies in gauging just how deep the rivalry between supreme leader and president has become and it could also throw light on possible contenders for next year’s presidential elections.

Among the five candidates who have already secured seats in Tehran, Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, a key ally of Khamenei and father-in-law to his son Mojtaba, won most votes.

“We have to wait for the factions to be formed before we can see what happened. But whatever happens the next parliament will not give him (Ahmadinejad) an easy ride. I doubt he’ll be very happy,” said analyst Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University.

COMPLEX SYSTEM

The United Front of Principalists – an alliance of conservative group tied to the Supreme Leader – was the largest entity in the first round but analysts say Iran’s political system makes it tricky to forecast candidates’ allegiance.

“This list contains many Ahmadinejad critics … but many of its candidates are newbies whose true political leaning is uncertain. As such, we don’t know how they will necessarily behave,” said Iran analyst Reza Esfandiari.

“Political groupings in Iran are not disciplined, and there is no ‘whip’ in the Iranian parliamentary system that coerces MPs to act one way or the other,” he added.

The waters are muddied by the fact that many successful candidates appeared on the lists of both the pro-Khamenei Principlist Front and the equally hardline, pro-Ahmadinejad Resistance Front, making it difficult to fathom who can count more on the lawmaker in question.

The political persuasion of more than 70 independent candidates elected in the first is also unknown.

“Many of them are from small provinces and are not known politically. But some have been supported by Ahmadinejad during the campaign and so they will very likely tend to support him,” said Sadeq Zibakalam, an Iranian professor of political science.

AHMADINEJAD’S LAST STAND

Khamenei swiftly endorsed Ahmadinejad’s re-election in 2009, rejecting opposition allegations of widespread fraud that led to eight months of unrest.

But a rift opened between the two leaders when Ahmadinejad made several key policy decisions that his critics said were not in line with the supreme leader and undermined the leading political role of clergy.

Even before the current election, Ahmadinejad was already regularly criticised by parliament and, in March, he became the first president in the Islamic Republic’s history to be summoned to the assembly for questioning.

Parliament, which has the power to impeach the president, accused him of economic mismanagement and making illegal appointments.

In the past months, dozens of Ahmadinejad allies have been detained or dismissed from their posts for being linked to a “deviant current” that his rivals say aims to sideline clerics.

Ahmadinejad has inflicted hardship on Iranians, critics say, through soaring inflation caused in part by slashing food and fuel subsidies.

Iran is also under ever-tightening economic sanctions driven by western countries that believe Tehran may be developing nuclear weapons technology, something it denies. It also faces the threat of Israeli military strikes on its nuclear sites.

Tehran resumed nuclear talks with major powers in mid-April after more than a year. A second round of talks is scheduled for May 23 in Baghdad.

Polling stations in 33 constituencies opened at 8 a.m. (0330 GMT) and closed at 9 p.m., electoral official Hassanali Nouri told state media.

Khamenei had called for a high turnout.

“My suggestion is that they (people) should take the second round as seriously as the first round. The higher the number of votes for lawmakers … the better they can work,” state television quoted him as saying after he cast his vote.

One voter, a young man identified only by his first name of Alireza, told state television: “I will vote because my vote will be a defeat for Iran’s enemies.”

Turnout in the first round of parliamentary election was 64 percent. The interior ministry has said final results were expected within 24 hours after the polls close.

But Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, a lawmaker who is a senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stressed that the powers on the other side of the table should lift their “illogical sanctions” at the meeting, the Mehr news agency reported.

“Iran expects the P5+1 group to put an end to the illogical sanctions in Baghdad, because the inefficency of sanctions is proven even for Western leaders,” he said, referring to the P5+1 grouping comprising the five veto-wielding UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany.

“They can show their goodwill through a trust-building effort by” lifting the sanctions, Hadad Adel said.

“Although one should not expect for all issues to be resolved in Baghdad, we can assume the (atmosphere) of the talks will follow in the footsteps of Istanbul,” he said.

The Baghdad talks follow on from discussions revived April 13-14 in Istanbul after a 15-month deadlock.

While the Istanbul meeting managed to set a positive tone for talks to continue, the Baghdad round is seen as the first substantive meeting in which contentious issues will be broached.

The United States, which is leading Western economic sanctions against Iran, is reportedly floating a concession to allow Iran minimal enrichment of uranium — previously a no-go option — if the Islamic republic in return permits more invasive inspections of its nuclear activities.

Iran has sent signals suggesting it could negotiate over its medium-enriched uranium process, but officials have repeatedly said that the Western sanctions should be eased.

Tehran rejects Western accusations that it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability.

Tough new European Union sanctions aimed at stopping Iran’s oil exports to Europe also ban EU insurers and reinsurers from covering tankers carrying Iranian crude anywhere in the world. Around 90 percent of the world’s tanker insurance is based in the West, so the measures threaten shipments to Iran’s top Asian buyers China, India, Japan and South Korea.

Global crude oil prices have risen nearly 20 percent since October, partly on fears over supply disruptions from Iran.

“(Ship) operators are worried that if the insurance issue cannot be resolved, they will not be able to take orders for shipping Iranian oil any longer,” Zhang Shouguo, secretary general of China Shipowners’ Association, told Reuters in a rare interview with foreign media.

“We have put forward our concern and related government departments are studying the issue.”

Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, exports most of its 2.2 million barrels of oil per day to Asia, and major buyers have yet to find a way around pending EU sanctions.

“We are paying great attention to this, the country has the need for oil and it’s our responsibility to move the crude,” said Zhang. “But we need a solution from the government so we can avoid such risk.”

Like China, India and South Korea were also mulling sovereign guarantees for their tankers. Indian shipping firms indicated last week they would continue to transport Iranian oil even if limited insurance cover exposed them financially to a spill or accident.

Chinese insurers and shipowners would not take the risk on themselves and government intervention was necessary, Zhang said. Major ship insurer, China P&I club, told Reuters earlier this month it would not provide replacement cover for domestic tankers carrying Iranian oil.

Most of China’s tanker fleet, owned by firms such as China Shipping, COSCO Group and Nanjing Tankers, were covered by European insurers, analysts said.

Most maritime insurers pool their coverage and tap into the reinsurance market when coverage exceeds $8 million. A typical supertanker – the biggest can ferry some 2 million barrels of oil – is covered for $1 billion against personal injury and pollution claims.

Several government departments were considering the industry’s request, including the Ministry of Finance, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Transport and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Zhang said. He did not say when a decision might be made.

Until recently, China was Iran’s top customer, taking more than 20 percent of its crude exports but customs data last week showed China halved its Iranian crude imports in March compared with the same month in 2011.

The reports derived from a supposed interview with Communications Minister Reza Taghipour published on April 1 that was in fact a hoax, the ministry said in the statement on its own site www.ict.gov.ir — which itself was not accessible outside of Iran.

“The report is in no way confirmed by the ministry” and is “completely baseless,” the ministry statement said.

The hoax report quoted Taghipour saying that Iran would from August launch a “clean internet” that would block popular services like Google and Hotmail and replace them with government-sponsored search engines and e-mail services.

The ministry statement slammed the false report as serving “the propaganda wing of the West and providing its hostile media with a pretext emanating from a baseless claim.”

Iran, however, does have plans to establish a “national information network” billed as a totally closed system that would function like a sort of intranet for the Islamic republic.

Taghipour said in early April that the plan would be fully implemented by March 2013.

But he did not explain whether access to the Internet would be cut, or whether Iran’s “national information network” would exist alongside the world wide web.

Iran in any case currently censors millions of websites deemed un-Islamic, and has from time to time imposed temporary additional restrictions.

“We have agreed with Iran to launch a new round of talks in Istanbul on 14 April,” said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “We are very pleased that these talks, which will address the international community´s concerns on the Iranian nuclear programme, are going ahead after more than one year since we last met,” Mann said in a statement.

Agreement comes after weeks of diplomatic wrangling between Tehran and Russia, China, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Faced with mounting pressure from the world powers over its controversial nuclear program, Iran said last month that it was ready to re-engage with the International Atomic Energy Association, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

As a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran has the right, like other countries, to enrich uranium for commercial and research reactors. But the same facilities that are used for peaceful enrichment can be used to enrich uranium for a bomb. And that’s what many Western countries suspect Iran is doing.

Iran insists its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

The country suggested over the weekend that it may be willing to reduce the amount of uranium it is enriching at 20%.

“Based on our needs and once the required fuel is obtained, we will decrease the production and we may even totally shift it to the 3.5%,” Iranian nuclear chief Fereydoun Abbasi said in a televised interview, according to state-run Press TV.

Iran does not plan to produce 20% enriched uranium for long, Abbasi said, according to Press TV.

Uranium enriched at 20% is typically used for hospital isotopes and research reactors, but is also seen as a shortcut toward the 90% enrichment required to build nuclear weapons. Nuclear experts say Iran’s supply is far greater than it would need for peaceful purposes.

Iran says there is a medical purpose to its nuclear program.

The Gulf nation’s economy has been hit hard by U.S. and European oil and financial sanctions over its nuclear activities.

Israel has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear sites should peaceful alternatives be exhausted, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating last month that Israel reserved the right to defend itself from the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Netanyahu laid out demands Sunday in Jerusalem: “One, stop all enrichment of uranium, both 20% and 3%. Two, move all enriched material out of Iran’s territory; it is possible to give them alternative material for peaceful purposes. Three, dismantle the illegal facility in Qom.”

The Fordo nuclear enrichment plant is in the mountains of Qom province, where Iran says it has 3,000 centrifuges in operation.

“Naturally, we will monitor the talks to see that Iran does not use them in order to deceive the world and continue with its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said.

Tehran has threatened to cut off the Strait of Hormuz — the only shipping lane out of the oil-rich Persian Gulf — if it is attacked.

In early March, the head of the IAEA said there were indications that Iran was engaged in the development of nuclear weapons.

“Iran is not telling us everything. That is my impression. We are asking Iran to engage with us proactively, and Iran has a case to answer,” said Yukiya Amano, the director general of the IAEA.

(CNN)

The European Union is set to impose a total embargo on Iranian crude oil from July following similar measures imposed by the United States to try to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment.

“We must say to them that we have that much saved that even if we didn’t sell oil for two to three years, the country would manage easily,” a report on Tuesday from Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a visit to Hormuzgan province.

The United States and its allies hope the sanctions on Iran’s energy and financial sectors will force it to abandon uranium enrichment which they suspect is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its goals are entirely peaceful.

Iran is due to resume talks this week with Western countries plus Russia and China on its nuclear programme.

The International Energy Agency recently said that the wide-ranging sanctions against Iran could reduce its oil exports by as much as 1 million barrels per day, or 40 percent, from the middle of the year.

European member states, including Greece, Spain and Italy have been significant customers to Iran and are scrambling to find alternative supplies before the ban is introduced.

Ahmadinejad accused Western countries of being solely interested in plunder, Fars reported.

The Mehr News Agency reports that AliMohammad Gholiha said: “From now on, female commuters can address their religious concerns to female seminarians stationed in subway stations.”

He said this new program follows the success of an earlier one that saw male seminarians take to the Tehran subway stations to deal with travellers’ religious needs.

Gholiha reports that 80 male seminarians were assigned to 30 subway stations during the month of Ramadan in a plan referred to as a “spiritual breeze.”

Hojattoleslam Mehdi Mousavi, an aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader, announced that he had organized the plan to address Ayatollah Khamenei’s long-neglected recommendation that clergy be given a greater presence in Iranian life to protect a vulnerable society.

He added that the Spiritual Breeze was aimed at the “soft war being waged by foreign media through satellite programming, the internet and other channels.”

source: Radio Zamaneh

Minister Salehi told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA): “Unfortunately, a number of countries that are trying to pressure the Syrian government are not satisfied with these reforms and keep pressing them with new demands.”

He added that Syria is one of the “main links in the chain of resistance in the region, and its vital place should be guarded.”

In July, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei accused the U.S. of trying to link the situation in Syria with the popular uprisings in other Arab and North African countries as a way to encumber the Syrian government. He said: “Syria is part of the line of resistance, and what’s happening in Syria is essentially different from what is happening in the other regional countries.”

More recently, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem accused Western countries of creating a crisis in Syria. In a speech to the UN General Assembly on September 26, Mouallem said foreign intervention is at the root of months of unrest in his country.

He added that the unrest has forced a delay in instituting the reforms promised by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Syrian foreign minister went on to add that the sanctions imposed on his country by the U.S. and the European Union have made it difficult for ordinary citizens to meet their daily needs.

Syrian protesters have been active since March, demanding reforms and an end to government corruption.

source: Radio Zamaneh

“Iran and Sudan will stand together as defenders of the Islamic world and the independence of the region,” he said after meeting Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir during a brief visit to Khartoum. “Both countries are facing pressure from the colonialists, who want to impose things that affect our people negatively. They are trying to apply pressure on independent states, because they don’t want them to be strong,” he added.

Ahmadinejad headed a delegation of government officials, including the ministers of energy and higher education, and a number of economic advisers, who held talks with senior Sudanese officials. Sudan’s delegation included the deputy foreign minister, and the ministers of oil, labour, information and presidential affairs.

Speaking alongside Ahmadinejad after the meeting, Bashir underlined Sudan’s support for Iran’s nuclear programme.

“We will work together to build a relationship based on cooperation and respect and mutual benefits, and we are looking forward to closer cooperation with Iran,” he said. “We confirm that we support the right of Iran to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.”

Iran is under mounting international pressure over its controversial nuclear programme, which the West fears masks a drive to acquire atomic weapons capability – a charge Tehran persistently denies.

Although there was no indication that any agreements were signed on Monday, the visit does appear to have strengthened economic and political ties between the two Islamic governments.

In a joint statement released shortly before Ahmadinejad’s departure, Iran said it was “ready to transfer its experience in the science and manufacturing sectors, especially technical and engineering services, to improve Sudan’s infrastructure.”

Khartoum is urgently seeking foreign support in the face of mounting economic woes, which include soaring inflation, crippling foreign debts and the loss of much of its oil revenues, after South Sudan’s formal secession in July.

Iran is a key ally, pledging $200 million to fund various projects in Sudan’s impoverished eastern region at a donor conference late last year. The two countries are heavily sanctioned by the United States, which kept them both on its list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, in an annual report published by the State Department last month.

source: AFP

Fars News Agency reports that Moslehi told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting: “The British intelligence under the guise of the BBC has begun a new phase of destructive and anti-Iranian activities. The Intelligence Ministry has stepped in to block these destructive activities by the British and to stop more people from becoming ensnared by their intelligence service.”

Last Sunday, Iranian authorities arrested five Iranian documentary makers accused of collaborating with the Persian BBC. Iran’s House of Cinema and Association of Documentary Makers have spoken out against the arrests and urged authorities to respect the detainees’ rights.

Minister Moslehi said: “We are considering all reactions both beyond our borders and within. We do not care which group is the main instigator in this incident because we will take all reactions into consideration in our future moves.”

He added: “The BBC is actually not a media outlet but rather an organization that is only disguised as a media outlet, and its actual nature is Baha’i- Zionist, and its missions are related to political intelligence.”

The arrests took place after the BBC broadcast a documentary about Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The BBC has announced that it has no employees or collaborators in Iran.

source: Radio Zamaneh

Speaking at a press conference in New York hours after landing back safely on American soil following their release to Oman on Wednesday, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal laid bare the extent of their harrowing two-year ordeal in Iran.

“We had to go on hunger strike repeatedly just to receive letters from our loved ones,” said Fattal. “Many times, too many times, we heard the screams of other prisoners being beaten and there was nothing we could do to help them. It was clear to us from the very beginning that we were hostages. This is the most accurate term because, despite certain knowledge of our innocence, Iran has always tied our case to its political disputes with the US.”

The pair, both 29, were arrested with Sarah Shourd near the mountainous border with Iraq on July 31, 2009. All three have always maintained they are innocent of spying and simply strayed across the border into Iran.

“Sarah, Josh and I have experienced a taste of the Iranian regime’s brutality,” said Bauer. “We have been held in almost total isolation from the world and everything we love, stripped of our rights and freedom. “The only explanation for our prolonged detention is the 32 years of mutual hostility between America and Iran. We were convicted of espionage because we are American. It’s that simple,” he continued.

“The two court sessions we attended were a total sham. They were made up of ridiculous lies that depicted us as being involved in an elaborate American-Israeli conspiracy to undermine Iran.”

Shourd, a teacher, writer and women’s rights activist, met Bauer, a fluent Arabic-speaking freelance journalist, while helping to organize demonstrations in the US against the war in Iraq. The two moved to Damascus together in 2008.

Fattal is an environmentalist and teacher. He traveled in 2009 to Damascus. Bauer proposed to Shourd during a rare moment shared in captivity, presenting her with an engagement ring painstakingly weaved from the threads of his shirt.

Thrust into the media spotlight after three days with their families in Oman, Bauer made more political points than Fattal, who applauded the Iranian authorities for finally making the right decision about the case.

“The irony is that Sarah, Josh and I oppose US policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility,” said Bauer.

After using the platform to urge Iran to free all “prisoners of conscience,” he also criticized the US government, saying the pair’s Iranian guards often defended their conditions by referencing Guantanamo Bay and CIA prisons.

“We do not believe that such human rights violations on the part of our government justify what has been done to us. Not for a moment,” he said. “However, we do believe that these actions on the part of the US provide an excuse for other governments, including the government of Iran, to act in kind.”

The hikers repeated thanks to the Gulf sultanate of Oman, which posted their bail, $400,000 each, and a host of notables, from boxer Muhammad Ali to actor Sean Penn, who fought for their freedom during 781 long days in prison. President Barack Obama described the release as “wonderful news” and called Oman’s Sultan Qaboos on Friday to thank him for his role in pushing Iran to free the hikers.

Their arrests angered Washington, which already has deep differences with Tehran over its controversial nuclear program, its refusal to recognize Israel and its support for militant groups in the Middle East.

The United States on Thursday led a mass walkout of the UN General Assembly as Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched an outspoken attack on Western nations.

The Iranian leader again cast doubt on the origins of the Holocaust and the September 11, 2001 attacks and criticized the United States for killing Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden rather than bringing him to trial.
Iran, accused by Western nations of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, is under four sets of UN sanctions for refusing for years to bow to international demands to rein in uranium enrichment.

source: AFP

In a statement released Saturday, the two media bodies point to the recent arrest of “several documentary makers on vague and unfounded accusations of collaborating with BBC Persian,” noting that the arrests coincide with the airing of a documentary on BBC Persian television about Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Islamic Republic authorities have confirmed the arrest of a number of filmmakers charged with collaborating with the Persian BBC. The BBC has in turn announced that it has no employees or collaborators in Iran.

The announcement goes on to accuse Iranian authorities of “arbitrary practices that have included satellite jamming; continuous Internet disruption; the intimidation of journalists, government critics and online activists; and aggressive hacking practices.”

They maintain that the Iranian government’s practices “thwart independent media” and are a blatant violation of international standards.

The Islamic Republic consistently jams Persian-language radio and television broadcasts from outside Iran.

source: Radio Zamaneh

In retaliation, Iranian security forces put Mehdi Karroubi and Fatemeh Karroubi under house arrest in their apartment complex. They were cut off from the outside world and denied any visitors, and security forces were deployed in their apartment. Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, were also put under house arrest in their home.

The Saham News website has published the critical letter which is addressed to the head of Iran’s judiciary and written by Fatemeh Karroubi, the wife of opposition leader

A few weeks ago, Mehdi Karroubi was transferred to a small apartment, where there was no room to accommodate his wife. Fatemeh Karroubi writes that the former regime treated political prisoners more humanely than the Islamic Republic does. She writes that the former regime never raided people’s private homes without a warrant and, when people were put under house arrest, security forces were not deployed inside the home.

Fatemeh Karroubi goes on to write that her husband is being held under conditions that are even worse than those faced by a prisoner in solitary confinement. She adds that Karroubi is denied basic prisoner rights, with no access to books, newspapers, regular visits or even fresh air.

Fatemeh Karroubi writes that because their house arrest had forced the other residents of the apartment complex out of their homes, the Karroubis had asked the authorities to move them to another location. Fatemeh Karroubi writes that her husband had challenged the takeover of the complex and told authorities that he was ready to be moved to any other location, even the notorious Evin Prison.

She adds that her family prepared a house in the northern part of Tehran, but the authorities claimed that the location did not meet with their approval. The authorities have said that the family must rent another location if it wishes to move Mehdi Karroubi to a larger place.

Fatemeh Karroubi notes that the authorities are burdening the family with all the costs of the prison and the guards, just so they can “tell the world that Karroubi is under arrest in his own home.”

She however emphasizes that despite all pressures, her husband stands firm in his political stance with the “very fervour that he began his political activities with in 1961.”

source: Radio Zamaneh

Hague would condemn Tehran for “suppressing protest at home while claiming to support revolutions elsewhere in the region — except Syria” in a speech to a seminar organised by the newspaper.

Hague’s speech would turn the focus on Iran, which has been overshadowed in news coverage by the uprisings in Arab states, the paper reported.

“The lessons of the Arab revolutions hold true for Iran just as they apply to repressive governments across the world,” he will say, the paper reported.

“Demands for respect for rights, open government, action against corruption and genuine political participation have and will spread by themselves over time… because they are the natural aspirations of all people everywhere. Simply refusing to address legitimate grievances about human rights or attempting to stamp them out will fail.”

In 2009, Britain and other Western countries condemned Tehran for violently crushing protests that followed the controversial re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran denounced the Western condemnations as meddling in its internal affairs.

Dozens of people were killed in the opposition demonstrations protesting what they said was massive election fraud. Thousands more were arrested, several hundred of whom were handed long prison terms.

Hague will argue, that the protests were a “precursor” of the Arab revolutions, the newspaper said.

source: AFP