Although Western media and the United Nations have spent no time to it, the Iranian Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a law recently that would punish apostates, Muslims who change their religion, punishable by death. For some mysterious reason, the same media and UN find it of immense importance to talk about every negative development taking place in the West and especially Israel, but consider it of no importance what goes on in countries run by Muslim extremists, such as Iran.

It seems that the new law may make its first victim rather soon. Ramtin Soodmand was arrested by Iranian police recently. His crime? Being a Christian.  (more…)

Although by no fault of his own, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, was at the root of an international controversy on Tuesday after Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted him as saying that Israel would “eat” Iran before letting it develop nuclear weapons.

“I honestly don’t believe that it will give any immunity to Iran. First, because you [Israelis] will eat them before,” the newspaper quoted Kushner as saying.  (more…)

By Kourosh Ziabari.

Nowadays, Iran and its people are being threatened widely for a near, possible attack by the Israeli forces if Tehran continues pursuing its nuclear program. Additionally, the amount of media pressure against the country is increasing simultaneous to the rhetoric of Israeli officials, backed by U.S. statesmen.

Some western governments have implied they would support Israel Israel if it would carry out a bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities because of the threatening nature of these installations. (more…)

Akbar Ganji argues for Foreign Affairs Magazine that the real power in Iran is not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nor any other politician; rather, the real power in Tehran is Supreme Religious Leader Ali Khamenei. Khamenei is, Ganji argues, the one who truly decides about all important issues: foreign policy, nuclear energy, oppression in Iran, the economy… everything.

As such, Ganji states, it is silly for us to pretend that everything will change for the better in Iran at the moment Ahmadinejad loses elections.  (more…)

Although both John McCain and Barack Obama agree that a nuclear armed Iran is bad thing, both do not seem to able to come up with a plan to actually prevent Tehran from developing such weapons.

McCain’s way of stopping Iran is to found a new organization called the “league of democracies.” This league should then try to prevent Iran from developing WMD’s by inflicting ‘so much economic pain on Teheran that it would give up its nuclear ambitions.’ (more…)

The Bush administration has decided to shelve plans for a diplomatic office in Iran. Bush and his staffers fear that establishing such an office now would give people the impression that they are trying to influence the outcome of the elections in November of this year.

Some, the White House believes, would believe that the office was created so as to take wind out of the sails of Barack Obama who argued for negotiations with Iran. If diplomatic office was created in Iran, the White House fears, people would accuse it of playing politics - it would make the point about establishing diplomatic ties with Iran mute. (more…)

The United States and Europe are celebrating the fact that they were able to convince the United Nations of the need to implement sanctions against Iran. It was a remarkable diplomatic victory indeed considering that Russia said a week ago or so that it would not agree to any sanctions.

And it didn’t. (more…)

Meir Javedanfar explains for Pajamas Media why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President, is so afraid of falling oil prices.

Although many think that it is all about hurting the West, hurting anyone is not Ahmadinejad’s main concern in this regard, Javedanfar argues. No, the real reason Iran is constantly trying to push up oil prices is that Iran’s economy is in trouble. (more…)

Muhammed ElBaradei, the leader of the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations, said in an interview published Friday that Iran is one quite some countries “on the path” to developing nuclear weapons.

There is “a whole list of countries that posses the ingredients to assemble an atomic weapon in a matter of a few months, that possess fissile material or the technical means to create it,” he said. (more…)

The Baseej, Iran’s people’s militia, is one of Iran’s most powerful institutions. It consists out of three million people who are extremely loyal the ‘Islamic Revolution’ of 1979, and who are more than willing to die for their beliefs. The militia fought against Iraq during the eight-year war in the 1980s; many of its members were massacred during that war.

They became infamous for their radicalism. They lacked heavy equipment, but what they lacked materially, they made up for in extremism. (more…)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was set Tuesday to speak for the second time in his career to the United Nations. Beforehand he said on public radio that his country is not looking for a confrontation with the United States, or with any other country for that matter. Additionally, Ahmadinejad said, Tehran is willing to work with the U.S. on a variety of issues, such as security in Iraq.

At the same time, Iran is not willing to let the U.S. or any other country interfene in its domestic affairs, such as its nuclear project. (more…)

In what would indeed make for a great Monty Python episode, Iranian political and religious leaders are fighting with each other over Israel. No, the question is not who loves Israel more, rather it is about who hates it more.

It all started when Iranian Vice President and close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, said that Iran does not hate the Israeli people but it’s leaders. (more…)

Iran warned on Tuesday it will not respond to every adverse claim about its nuclear drive, after a damning report from the UN atomic watchdog left the global community divided about future action.

Amid continuing fears that one response might be a US or Israeli strike on Tehran’s nuclear programme, a top aide to Iran’s supreme leader again raised the specter that his country could bring oil shipments from the Gulf to a halt if attacked. (more…)

Although Iran is often referred to as a Shiite country, it actually has a sizable Sunni population. These Sunnis are represented in Parliament by other Sunni politicians. On Monday, these Sunni MPs responded in anger after it became clear that an important Sunni mosque in the country was demolished. (more…)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that his country would continue to support Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas until “the collapse of Israel.”

Iranian news agency Khabar quoted him as saying to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that he and the Iranian people as a whole consider it their religious and national duty to support Hamas “until the big victory feast which is the collapse of the Zionist regime.” (more…)

The Haaretz reports that the United States has refused to sell weapons to Israel in recent months, fearing that the weapons may be used in an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Such an attack would, the U.S. fears, result in chaos and widespread anger, possibly violence and even a regional war. (more…)

In what could very well prove to a highly controversial development, the United States ‘is planning to sell the United Arab Emirates an advanced U.S. missile defense system valued at up to $7 billion that could be used to defend against Iran,’ people who have attended briefings on the matter told Reuters on Monday.

The Pentagon will inform Congress about the deal later. (more…)

Saudi Arabia continues to be a thorn in the foot of the West’s public enemies such as Iran and Venezuela. The two oil producing and exporting countries had called on all OPEC countries to adhere to its quotas and to stop “oversupplying” the market. Especially Saudi Arabia was criticized; it produces some 500,000 barrels of oil more per day than its quota allows it to.

The Kingdom ruled by the House of Saudi, however, made perfectly clear on Tuesday it was not willing to cut production in any significant way. (more…)

For days now, the Islamic Republic of Iran has called  on fellow OPEC members to cut oil production. According to Iran and its allies, oil producing and exporting countries are producing more oil than is necessary; this forces the prices to go down and, thus, countries like Iran earn less than they could.

There is, however, another far more important reason for Iran’s opposition to producing more oil, and the amount of oil in the world has nothing to do with it - it is highly questionable whether or not OPEC is producing more than necessary. (more…)

Amir Taheri writes for the New York Post that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has found himself a brand new enemy: women.

You see, just before he died, the founder of the Iranian revolution said there were three enemies his country had to deal with, the United States, Jews and women. As Taheri explains, ‘two decades later, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has the United States and the Jews in hand - and is moving on the third “enemy.”‘ (more…)

The relationship between one of the leading countries in the region - Iran and Saudi Arabia - continues to deteriorate. The two have been at odds with each other for decades, of course, ever since Persia changed its name into Iran, and became an Islamic Republic. Saudi Arabia was not happy with this development because Iran is a Shia country, not a Sunni one. Since Shia are basically blasphemers according to fundamentalist Sunnis such as the Saudi government, it did everything in its power to prevent Iran’s influence from growing. (more…)

James S. Robbins looks at reports for National Review Online that appeared in the Dutch newspaper the Telegraaf about the infiltration of Iran’s nuclear program by agents of the Dutch secret service and a possible planned U.S. attack against Iran in order to prevent the Mullahs from developing nuclear weapons.

Robbins conclusion: “I have no idea whether any of these reports of imminent action are true. But as the various clocks keep ticking, the strategic logic of active counter-proliferation against Iran becomes more compelling. The U.S. may act, Israel may act, or not. We will know soon enough, one way or the other.” (more…)

Iran is building a new submarine which could radically alter the balance of power, sources told PoliGazette. (more…)

McCain, at an event in New Hampshire some time ago, decided to express his anger with an intelligence report that downplayed the Iranian nuclear threat. Amongst other things, he had this to say:

At the end of a long list of reasons to be suspicious of the Iranians, McCain declared: “And they sure don’t share our Judeo-Christian values.”

There are several reasons why this is offensive to, well, just about everyone.

(more…)

Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a leading Iranian cleric, chastised a leading aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his controversial remarks that Iranians are “friends with Israelis” on Tuesday.

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie sparked the fury of Islamists, some MPs and cleric by saying that the two peoples are “friends.” (more…)

‘Although analysts and political observers categorically defend that Turkey should keep open diplomatic channels with all of its neighbors in the region, including Iran, the way President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was hosted in Istanbul revealed a picture of solidarity between the two Islamic countries, sparking rumors that Turkey let Ahmadinejad show off in the predominantly Muslim but secular country,’ Fulya Özerkan writes for Turkish Daily News. (more…)

Shortly after Iran said it has fighter jets in its position able to reach Israel and return to their base without having the need to refuel an Israeli expert dismissed it as quite irrelevant.

‘Yiftah Shapir, head of the Middle East Military Balance project at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, said there was a major difference between being able to fly 3,000 kilometers and actually carrying out a successful airstrike on a distant target.’ (more…)

Iranian women are rightfully complaining (Dutch) that the West only talks about their country’s nuclear program, and not about women’s rights. These rights, and the horrific treatment of women in Iran, are ignored. This while the West likes to pretend that it cares deeply about human rights. (more…)

Iran’s persecution of Baha’is continues; the radical Islamic regime has now arrested seven Baha’is who, after interrogation (which in Iran means torture), have admitted to receiving orders from Israel to ‘undermine the Islamic system.’ (more…)

In what cannot possibly surprise anyone, Iran has not responded to the EU’s offers with regards to the country’s nuclear program before the deadline (this weekend). An EU official added, though, that Javier Solana expects an answer “in the coming days.” (more…)