Articles

A group led by foreign policy establishment figure Sadegh Kharazi is trying to revive the fortunes of the reformist movement in a new guise.
Amidst all of the domestic turmoil of Iranian politics and numerous foreign policy issues at the center of the international media spotlight, an attempt by a group of reformists to revive their political current, which has largely fallen outside of the mainstream of Iranian politics since the end of the Green Movement demonstrations, has gone relatively unnoticed. This revival effort has been led by Sadegh Kharazi, among the few reformists in Iran’s senior foreign policy establishment.

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By: Roger Cohen 2 Oct. 2014 NYT

LONDON — Breakfast last week in New York with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran was a cordial affair, bereft of the fireworks of his predecessor, whose antics made headlines and not much more. Rouhani, flanked by his twinkly-eyed foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, was composed, lucid and, on the whole, conciliatory. He said a nuclear accord was doable by the deadline of Nov. 24 “if there is good will and seriousness.” He revealed that he had spoken last year with President Obama about “a number” of possible areas of collaboration in the event of an accord. He did not underplay the difficulties, or the implacability of a deal’s opponents in Iran and the United States, but suggested the “short-lived dustbowl” thrown up by any resolution would dissipate as win-win awareness grew. He even alluded to the aroma of roses. It was a polished performance full of the subtleties intrinsic to the Iranian mind. The question, as always with Iran, is what precisely it meant.

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The directors’ campaign is believed to be backed by Iran’s foreign ministry
Six prominent Iranian filmmakers have launched a campaign urging world powers to agree a permanent solution to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.
The directors – including Abbas Kiarostami and Asghar Farhadi, who won Iran’s first Oscar in 2012 – say “there is no deal that is worse than no deal”.

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Shafaq News / Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Kurdistan Region’s President , Massoud Barzani announced that the so-called successor of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

“ISIS” organization , terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived to city Mosul, the center of Nineveh province to escape the violent aerial bombardment on Raqqa Syrian city, pointing to the anonymity of his hiding place until now.

A statement posted on the party’s website, followed by “Shafaq News”, said that “after the international coalition began bombing the Syrian cities, in which ISIS elements shelter it in , Baghdadi is now moving between Syria and Iraq, noting that the air strikes targeted him a few weeks ago on his way to Anbar from Syria .

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Written by Felice Friedson
Published Monday, September 29, 2014

The sister of a leading Iranian nuclear physicist widely believed to have been assassinated by Israel as part of an effort to derail the Islamic Republic’s drive to create nuclear weapons says her brother was murdered by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRI) because he wouldn’t cooperate with the effort to divert nuclear activities from peaceful purposes.

When Iranian scientist Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour was killed in February 2007, the cause of death was reported to be “gassing” and most presumed the act was carried out by Israel. That belief stood, largely because of Iranian accusations to that effect; and because of Israeli policy to neither confirm nor deny such acts. But now, seven years later, Mahboobeh Hosseinpour has come forward with the claim that the IRI was behind her brother’s death because of his refusal to be involved in Iran’s nuclear enrichment program whose use was for atomic purposes.

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By Caleb Melby Sep 29, 2014

Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Billionaire Kamran Hakim was late, and New York Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten wanted to know where he was.

“They’re coming up,” Hakim’s attorney, Leo Fox, said to Bransten, according to a court transcript. “In fact, he just asked me what room number it was.”

Hakim arrived to find two of his brothers and their attorneys waiting in the downtown Manhattan court room. Bransten asked him to remove his hat.

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By: Patrick Cockburn, Sunday 14 September 2014

The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has been aided by the continuing failure of the US Government to investigate the role of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attacks and its support of jihadi movements such as al-Qaeda in the years since, says former Senator Bob Graham, the co-chairman of the official inquiry into 9/11.

Senator Graham, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that successive administrations in Washington had turned a blind eye to Saudi support for Sunni extremists. He added: “I believe that the failure to shine a full light on Saudi actions and particularly its involvement in 9/11 has contributed to the Saudi ability to continue to engage in actions that are damaging to the US – and in particular their support for Isis.”

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by Akbar Ganji
antiwar.com

The Middle East is burning in fires of wars, violence, and destruction from Syria, to Yemen, and Iraq. But, amid all these wars, a new one has begun between Israel and the Palestinian people living in Gaza. The truth is that the war between Israel and the Palestinians is the mother of all the wars in the region. If there were peace between the people of Israel and Palestinians, we would probably never have any war in that region, at least not one initiated by the people of the Middle East. To understand this we must consider at least four important factors.

Israel as an occupying force

Israel was created in 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly. Resolution 181 of the UNGA that recognized Israel devoted 45 percent of the land to the Palestinians, 54 percent to Israel, and the remaining 1 percent – Jerusalem – was designated as international territory. And, while Israel was born by the resolution, over the last several decades it has violated the resolution itself. After the June 1967 war, the Palestinians’ share of the land has reduced to 22 percent. Resolution 465 of the United Nations Security Council twice mentions the territories occupied by Israeli forces and asks Israel to evacuate them. It also declares the settlements in the occupied territories, including in East Jerusalem, violation of Fourth Geneva Convention that deals with protection of civilian population during wars. The British Foreign Office has even declared the violation of the convention as war crimes. Israel has even violated the Oslo agreement that it has signed and committed itself to, and nearly 600,000 Israeli citizens live in the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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US company World Eco Energy has signed a preliminary agreement to invest $1.175 billion to generate electricity in Iran. The plan is to turn solid waste into power.
Representatives from the American company and the Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province Governor General, Malek-Mohammad Qorbanpour, signed the deal, the Tehran Times reported.
It is expected the project will create 650 immediate jobs, with another 2,000 emerging over the next two to three years, Oorbanpour told the IRNA news agency. Local companies will also be investing the same amount of money into the project.

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