Abbas Milani In Tehran these days, the heat is on. It has become something of a customary summer spectacle that with the rise in temperature and the onset of summer regime thugs begin to more rigorously enforce compulsory laws on women’s cover. In the words of one of the regime’s most powerful and reactionary clerics,... »
By: Amir Taheri Friday 04 February 2011 For over a week now global media have focused on Egypt, calling the events there a “revolution”, and this is something that they feel rather happy about. But is this a revolution? And, if yes, should we be happy about it? Revolutions are always identified as such after they have taken place. When... »
Submitted by James Besser on Tue, 01/25/2011 Catching up on the Iran issue, my attention was snagged by a Ha’aretz report today that the new head of Israel’s Military Intelligence says Iran could have nuclear weapons “within one or two years.” Well, maybe. Not for an instant will I dismiss the danger posed... »
Ted Koppel Sunday, January 23, 2011 Veteran broadcaster on how a crisis ended, but a war began —————————— On Jan. 20, 1981, 52 American diplomats, intelligence officers and Marines were finally released after being held hostage for nearly 15 months at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Americans saw it as the end of a long national nightmare. Iranians... »
More than three decades ago, before there was an Islamic Republic, the West sought desperately to prevent Iran’s ruler from getting his hands on the bomb. New revelations show just how serious the crisis was — and why America’s denuclearization drive isn’t working. ———————————————————- BY ABBAS MILANI | DECEMBER 29, 2010 Of the many inaccuracies and obfuscations... »
An appellate court in Tehran upheld an award winning freelance journalist’s verdict. Jila Baniyaghoub who is also an activist in the Iranian Women’s movement, is now facing a mandatory sentence of one year in jail and a 30 year ban from journalism. Throughout the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, only one other journalist, Ahmad... »
With the supreme religious leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, conducting a rare but much advertised visit to the religiously significant city of Qom, the most important hub of Shiite religious affairs in Iran, a group of political prisoners’ families have asked the religious leaders of that city in an open... »
Mehdi Karroubi, an outspoken dissident Iranian cleric who is well-known for his association with Iran’s “Green Movement,” congratulated the president of Chile for the successful rescue of that country’s trapped miners. Apparently, being the first Iranian official that congratulates Chile for freeing the miners from a depth of almost half a mile and over... »
The once named “Godfather of Persian Blogging,” may now be facing execution on a number of charges, stemming mainly from his once unconventional rhetoric towards the Islamic Republic of Iran’s system and its leaders, and also a trip he made to Israel. With Hossein Derakhshan (AKA “Hoder”) being incarcerated in detention for close to two... »
By DAVID E. SANGER President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing that an orchestrated series of global sanctions has brought more economic pain than Iran’s government anticipated, are making a renewed appeal to Iranian leaders to reopen negotiations on the country’s nuclear program. The administration’s opening to Iran comes as evidence... »
At first glance, President Obama’s policy on Iran and its illicit nuclear program is not all that different from President George W. Bush’s. They both committed themselves, on paper, to sanctions and engagement. Mr. Bush, however, was never really that serious about the carrots, and he spent so much time alienating... »
The opposition leader has issued a clear call for democracy, the separation of mosque and state, and a gentler foreign policy. BY Abbas Milani Ten days before the June 12 anniversary of last year’s contested presidential election, Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi called for his supporters to protest in the streets as they had... »
Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett claim they aren’t influence peddlers, but their emails suggest otherwise BY LEE SMITH “We don’t know of a single ‘Western scholar’ or ‘policy wonk’ … who thinks that access to the Iranian regime is going to make them powerful, rich, or both,” Flynt Leverett and his wife, Hillary Mann Leverett, recently... »
BY Amir Taheri Is the Obama administration shedding its illusions about the Khomeinist regime in Tehran? Six months ago it would have been naive to pose the question. Today, it is not. For there are signs that at least some key players in the new American administration are beginning to see beyond Obama’s rose-tinted glasses when it... »
Iran finds its Nelson Mandela. BY Abbas Milani Traditional Iranian husbands, the sort found in the highest ranks of the Islamic Republic, sometimes refer to their wives as “the house.” For them, this is not just an expression of their understanding of gender relations. It is viewed as a necessary euphemism, vital protection for a woman’s... »
BY Amir Taheri The Revolutionary Guard now has more power than the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader. At first glance, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei might seem a happy man. The pro-democracy movement had promised that last Thursday, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, would be a turning point for the cause of... »
BY Amir Taheri Thursdays’s events in Iran dealt a serious political blow to a beleaguered re gime unable to either accommodate its opponents or crush them by force. It was billed as the biggest show in the history of the Islamic Republic, and the celebrations marking the 31st anniversary of the seizure of... »
How Flynt Leverett and his wife, Hillary Mann Leverett, became leading advocates for doing business with Tehran BY LEE SMITH First in a two-part series on the dueling Iran lobbies in Washington. Flynt Leverett is fielding questions from an audience at the New American Foundation for a panel titled “What the Iranian People Really Think,”... »
How a former Iranian official and a U.S. foreign-policy guru are shifting Washington’s stance toward regime change in Tehran BY LEE SMITH Mohsen Sazegara is sipping tea at Starbucks to ease his flu. The temperature is below freezing in Georgetown, and the 55-year-old Iranian-rights activist has his sweater buttoned up to his chin. A compact... »
"... to cut costs, the Basij were instructed to make their money from fines. If everyone became a “good Muslim” overnight, who on earth would they fine? The trick was to constantly change the rules ... before abruptly tightening them up." »