Archive | May, 2009
Featured, General May 6, 2009

Obama Abandons ‘Regime Change,’ Iran Must Respond, Kerry Says

By Viola Gienger

May 6 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. has abandoned calls for “regime change” in Iran under President Barack Obama and expects a response to its diplomatic outreach, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said.

“That is not the current policy of this new administration, and it is important for Iran to understand that,” Kerry said during a panel hearing in Washington today. “Just as we abandon calls for regime change in Tehran and recognize the legitimate Iranian role in the region, Iran’s leaders need to moderate their behavior.”

Read More 0 Comments
Featured, General May 6, 2009

Saberi ends hunger strike in Iran

The jailed US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi has ended a two-week hunger strike, her father Reza Saberi says.

Roxana Saberi, 32, began eating again on Monday evening. She started the fast on 21 April to protest against an eight-year jail sentence for spying.

Her lawyer told the BBC that an appeals court would hear her case on 12 May. He said the verdict would be announced the same day or within a week.

Read More 0 Comments
Featured, General May 4, 2009

Gates seeking to reassure Gulf on outreach to Iran

CAIRO (AP) — The top U.S. military official cautioned Monday that the Obama administration’s quest to bolster relations with Tehran most likely will be met at first by “a closed fist.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is on a delicate mission to soothe concerns from Mideast allies about American efforts to open diplomatic relations with Iran.

Gates arrived in Cairo on the first leg of a Mideast tour that will include Saudi Arabia. He said part of his mission this week will be to assure the Saudis, particularly, that any U.S. gesture toward Tehran will be for the purpose of improving security throughout the region.

Read More 0 Comments
Featured, General May 1, 2009

Najjar: Iran set to help promote Venezuela’s defense capabilities

Tehran, April 30, IRNA – Iran’s Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Iran was ready to help promote defense capabilities and deterrence power of Venezuela in the framework of the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries.

He made the remarks in a meeting with the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas during his three-day visit to the country.

Chavez, for his part, said that Bolivarian Revolution shared many commonalities with Islamic Revolution.

He said such commonalities have further consolidated ties between the two countries.

Read More 0 Comments
Featured, Opinion May 1, 2009

Hostage Diplomacy: Roxana Saberi and the Three Jailed Iranian Diplomats

In response to a piece in which I thoroughly criticized the Iranian Intelligence regarding the arrest of American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, I was contacted by an Iranian diplomat who asked, me; if it’s all about human rights, why isn’t anybody talking about the three Iranian diplomats who have been taken hostage by the U.S. forces in Iraq since 2007?

Read More 0 Comments
Featured, General May 1, 2009

Gates: Persuasion better tack against Iran’s nuclear pursuits

WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program would not stop that country from pursuing the development of a nuclear weapon.

Read More 0 Comments
Featured, General May 1, 2009

U.S. wants Iran talks soon

Reporting from Washington — The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about how long Iran may take to respond to its peace overture, and worried that delays will build pressure at home and abroad that could undermine the effort to overcome decades of antagonism through face-to-face talks.

Read More 0 Comments
Newer posts →
Exclusive March 22, 2012

Iran, Israel and the United States: Our destinies need not be bound by political hatreds, fears, and squabblings

If you happen to have grown up in the west, you are certainly familiar with the horror that was the [...]

Exclusive March 8, 2012

Snap Analysis of Khamenei’s hailing of Obama’s call for caution on war talk

Khamenei: “This talk is good talk and shows an exit from illusion”

Exclusive March 6, 2012

INN Exclusive: Huge Media Fail – A CNN Correspondent’s Nuclear Misquote of President Obama

Did President Obama really call it a “nuclear weapons program?”

Arts and Culture February 27, 2012

Special: Press-stream of Oscar Win for Best Foreign Language Film for Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’

Snippets of sentiment and buzz captured throughout the day, surrounding the first ever Iranian film to win an Oscar, an event that will go down in history as coming at just the right moment–a time when some politicians and media clamor for war.

Arts and Culture February 24, 2012

Special: A Dichotomy of the “Chatter” vs. Instagrams from Iran

Acknowledging Iran in the drowning din of media chatter

Exclusive February 14, 2012

Iran Live-blog: 25 Bahman, One Year Later

Last year, tens of thousands Iranians protested in solidarity with uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Several people were killed, hundreds were arrested. Today we watch for signs of renewed protests.