Huge protests were held in Iran today as many supporters of opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi believe the election was stolen by current Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The protests turned violent with at least 1 death when he hardline Islamic Basij militia fired on the crowds.
President Obama says the Iranian voters should be heard but he also said diplomacy with Iran should continue. Vice President Joe Biden has also spoken out and says he has "real doubts" about the Iran election results. Iran's Supreme Leader has called for a recount in the wake of the large protests. Experts believe this may be the start of a democratic shift in Iran.
President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy are both calling for Iran to not develop a nuclear weapons program. President Obama says that Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon would be "profoundly dangerous" to the entire region and the world. He said if Iran gets a nuclear weapon than many countries in the Middle East are also going to want a nuclear weapon.
U.S. and Iran Hold First Bilteral Talks in 25 Years
In one of the few positive international developments lately, today the U.S. and Iran held the first bilateral talks between the countries in 27 years. The sole subject for discussion was the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. This meeting was recommended by the Iraq Study Group, chaired by Howard Baker. It's an excellent first step towards a more diplomatic approach to the disastrous situation in Iraq.
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told reporters after the session that his four-hour meeting with Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi had been business-like and "proceeded positively" and that both sides wanted to move toward a stable, federal Iraq.
But he said at a press conference that he made clear that the United States wants "Iranian actions on the ground to come into harmony with their described principles."
"I laid out to the Iranians direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq and their support for militias that are fighting Iraqi and coalition forces," including the imports of explosives from Iran into Iraq that have been used against U.S. and Iraqi forces, Crocker said.
He added that the Iranians accused the United States, which invaded Iraq in March 2003 to topple the government of Saddam Hussein, of acting as a colonial power.
The Iranians, Crocker disclosed, have suggested a tri-lateral security mechanism that would include U.S., Iraqi and Iranian efforts. Crocker gave few details about that proposal but said he was referring it to Washington for consideration.
In a separate meeting with reporters, Qomi said he told Crocker that Tehran would train and equip the Iraqi army and police to create "a new military and security structure," the Associated Press reported. He did not provide details of that plan or how the Americans responded to the offer.
Crocker said the meeting focused solely on the situation in Iraq. No other matters were on the agenda, including the contentious issue of Iran's nuclear program or Iran's recent detention of a handful of U.S. citizens.
Crocker also added that the Iranian ambassador proposed a second meeting. The United States will consider that, he said, but the "purpose of this meeting was not to arrange other meetings."
Qomi told an AP reporter after his news conference, that he expected such a meeting within the month.
The meeting took place in the offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone--the walled, high security enclave in the center of the capital that is the seat of the Iraqi government and headquarters for U.S. forces.
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The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, when revolutionaries led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the U.S.-backed shah and established an Islamic state in Iran. Khomeini supporters sacked the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
The two countries have numerous complaints against each other, fueled by years of hostility and suspicion. In particular, the United States accuses Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and is leading an international effort to force Iran to stop enriching uranium. Iran claims that it has the right to develop peaceful nuclear technologies and says its nuclear programs is strictly for electric power.
Expectations for the meeting were low and no agreement was reached today. But it's an excellent first start. Iran claims its nuclear ambitions are strictly to provide power, and has emphatically denied that it is funneling money to terrorists in Iraq. Very wisely, Washington decided to hold these talks without demanding that the nuclear issue be tied to it. Because, as the Iraq Study
Group concluded, no peace in Iraq is possible without the cooperation of the surrounding Muslim countries, whose porous borders are contributing to the violence.
Iran's nuclear ambitions are unclear, but it's safe to assume that the country -- like every other country in the Middle East -- would love to have nuclear weapons in its arsenal. Science and information want to be free and it is simply not possible to keep every unstable regime from gaining a nuclear weapon. With all the ex-Soviet talent available today, any country with enough money can begin research on a nuclear program. Our goal should be to delay the unstable countries' plans as long as possible, while pouring money into research into a missile shield or space laser that could quickly and easily shoot down any weapon aimed at the U.S. and its allies. The country with the most advanced technology will be able to protect itself from any threat, from space.
Iran Bans Western Hairstyles and the Tweezing of Eyebrows
Iran has now decided to crack down on men's hairstyling and eyebrow grooming. Yes, the morality police are back again and this time they're going after barbers who cut Iranian men's hair in Western styles, using gel to spike the hair. They are also going after barbers who dare tweeze any man's eyebrows.
Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said Sunday.
The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values.
"Western hairstyles ... have been banned," the newspaper Etemad said in a front-page headline.
It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing number of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months.
Under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obligated to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.
Violators can receive lashes, fines and imprisonment.
The student news agency ISNA quoted a police statement as saying: "In an official order to barbershops, they have been warned to avoid using Western hair styles and doing men's eyebrows."
Iranian young men have in recent years started paying more attention to the way they look and dress, especially in affluent parts of the capital Tehran. Spiked up hair, by using gel, is known as the Khorusi (Rooster) style and some also use make-up.
Several hairdressers for men in Tehran offer cuts in the style of Hollywood movie stars and other Western celebrities. Clients can also have their eyebrows plucked.
The head of the barbers' union, Mohammad Eftekharifard, said police had instructed it to "exercise specific regulations in barbershops that work under its supervision."
Barbers who do not follow these rules might be closed down for a month and even lose their permits to operate, Etemad quoted him as saying.
"Currently some barbershops apply make-up and use (hair) styles that are in line with those in European countries and America," Eftekharifard said.
Barbers are being threatened with the closure of their shops, as well as fines and imprisonment for violating the absurd ban. Clearly, the Cro-magnon Unibrow Look is about to make a big comeback in Tehran. It's a shame that it's so difficult to get unbiased news out of Iran these days. Because there is just no way that the college students are on board with this kind of repression of a man's natural rights not to look like a hairy beast.
Iran Bans Foreign Words, Iranian College Students Reduced to Eating Elastic Loaves
During his latest bout of insanity, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now decided to ban all foreign words. All governmental agencies, newspapers and publications must stop using foreign words immediately, or else the official language watchdog,
the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, is going to call in the police. That means no more pizza for Iranian college students. Instead, they can snack on some tasty "elastic loaves." That's not a helicopter in the sky, it's now some "rotating wings." And that's not a mobile phone you're using in Tehran, it's a "companion phone".
The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported.
The academy has introduced more than 2,000 words as alternatives for some of the foreign words that have become commonly used in Iran, mostly from Western languages. The government is less sensitive about Arabic words, because the Quran is written in Arabic.
Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to official Web site of the academy.
I'd call President Ahmadinejad an ostrich (because he somehow believes that by pretending that foreign words don't exist that somehow that makes them not exist), but -- alas -- it appears that "ostrich" is yet another non-existent foreign word. All right then. He's a large, feathered, flightless avian creature native to Africa. Now, to celebrate Ahmadinejad's decision, let's all go out for some elastic loaves and some brown-colored, carbonated beverages.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad surprised just about everyone by writing a hefty eighteen page letter to President Bush.
Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."
Rice's comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made only an oblique reference to Iran's nuclear intentions, asking why "any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime."
Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.
"Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger?" the letter said. "And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever- increasing global hatred of the American government?
Ahmadinejad on Tuesday called his letter "words and opinions of the Iranian nation" aimed at finding a "way out of problems" facing humanity, according to the official Iranian news agency. He spoke briefly before boarding a plane for Indonesia, where he was to attend a summit of developing nations.
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Most of Iran's newspapers devoted their front pages to Ahmadinejad's message on Tuesday.
"Ahmadinejad's letter, an initiative in global diplomacy," read a headline in the hard-line daily Resalat.
The moderate daily Shargh, or East, said the message may open a new page in relations with the United States.
But a conservative lawmaker lambasted Ahmadinejad for failing to consult parliament before he sent the letter.
"This message is the outcome of a series of taboo-breaking behaviors in Iran's foreign policy. ... That the parliament is not aware of (the contents of the) letter is questionable," Hashmatollah Falahatpisheh told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state-run radio Tuesday.
The letter (which was sent in English translation by the Iranian government via the Swiss Embassy) doesn't really say anything about dealing with the nuclear standoff. Nevertheless, it is a well-timed volley by Ahmadinejad at a time when the U.S. is desperately trying to get the U.N. to sanction Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Clearly, he saw what happened to Saddam Hussein and is trying to get ahead of the game politically. By sending out a letter to world leaders (Bush wasn't the only one who got a letter) he is trying to appear reasonable and ready to negotiate.
Which makes one wonder: is there someone from the West advising him? Because so far Iran has run circles around us in this diplomatic go-around. He sends a letter and George Bush tells the press that he didn't know anything about it (presumably he does now, although at eighteen pages (in a handy .pdf file from The Wall Street Journal) it seems unlikely in the extreme that our president has even read it.
What makes the Iran situation all the more infuriating is that many of our options for dealing with this repressive regime have been taken off the table by this administration's bungling of the Iraq war and its aftermath.
The hot topic on the Sunday talk shows was Sy Hersh's new article in The New Yorker in which Hersh says that President Bush has plans to go to war with Iran, and will use tactical nukes to take out any sites suspected as being connected with a nuclear weapons program. The article futher states that the U.S. military brass is vehemently opposed to the plan and is apparently leaking to the press left and right to put a stop to Bush's "Messianic" plan.
A senior Pentagon adviser on the war on terror expressed a similar view. "This White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war," he said. The danger, he said, was that "it also reinforces the belief inside Iran that the only way to defend the country is to have a nuclear capability." A military conflict that destabilized the region could also increase the risk of terror: "Hezbollah comes into play," the adviser said, referring to the terror group that is considered one of the world’s most successful, and which is now a Lebanese political party with strong ties to Iran. "And here comes Al Qaeda."
In recent weeks, the President has quietly initiated a series of talks on plans for Iran with a few key senators and members of Congress, including at least one Democrat. A senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, who did not take part in the meetings but has discussed their content with his colleagues, told me that there had been "no formal briefings," because "they’re reluctant to brief the minority. They’re doing the Senate, somewhat selectively."
The House member said that no one in the meetings "is really objecting" to the talk of war. "The people they’re briefing are the same ones who led the charge on Iraq. At most, questions are raised: How are you going to hit all the sites at once? How are you going to get deep enough?" (Iran is building facilities underground.) "There’s no pressure from Congress" not to take military action, the House member added. “The only political pressure is from the guys who want to do it." Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, "The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision."
Many military and diplomatic experts cited believe that the situation is so precarious in Iraq right now, that if the U.S. drops a nuke of any kind, the Middle East is going to explode into World War III. Our military is overextended and has a serious shortage of both recruits and officers. We're spending $6 billion a month in Iraq and not getting any oil out of the country because of that pesky undeclared civil war that's raging.
When top military leaders start chatting up Sy Hersh, it certainly appears that the military brass has serious questions about the competence and leadership ability of the White House. It's time for some cool logic, not more messianic zeal. After all, we managed a Cold War with the U.S.S.R. very nicely indeed. Soviet projects mysteriously "failed." There was sabotage. We used our spies. There is simply no need to wage yet another expensive, pointless hot war that will kill more American men and women when effectively mangaged, deniable covert operations could accomplish far more. We negotiate in good faith, and make sure Iran's weapons program (if it even has a viable one, which is debatable) never gets off the ground.
And if all that hasn't raised your blood pressure quickly enough, you can always go watch the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens take to the streets today across the United States to demand rights under the U.S. Constitution which -- by the way -- does not apply to them.
