Iran Focus: London, Jul. 02 Irans defeated presidential contender and current head of the State Expediency Council, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, warned of serious dangers threatening the theocratic regime in his first Friday prayers sermon following last weeks election. “Let me tell you without any further elaboration that we are facing serious problems and if forces loyal to the Islamic Republic and the revolution become divided, serious dangers will threaten us, Rafsanjani said.
Washington Times – Editorial: If there is a silver lining in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election as president of Iran, it is that it will be more difficult for people in the West to delude themselves into thinking they are dealing with so-called pragmatists or reformers who want to end the clerical dictatorship that has brutalized the Iranian people. Such an exercise in self-deception will be far more difficult to engage in now that Americans taken hostage by Iranian students who invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, say that Mr. Ahmadinejad played a central role in the takeover, interrogating American captives and demanding harsher treatment of the hostages. 
Iran Focus: London, Jul. 01 Human rights in Iran will be a priority for the European Union under the Presidency of the United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, according to a report released by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The report, entitled Prospects for the EU in 2005, noted, Human rights are also a priority for the UK and EU in relations with Iran, and, as Presidency, the UK will represent the EU in the EU/Iran Human Rights Dialogue. 
AFP: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said he would release a collection of documents proving the extent of election law violations and smear campaigns that took place in the presidential vote. “Based on authentic evidence, I will reveal documents on unethical moves that took place in the presidential election,” the official IRNA agency quoted Khatami as saying as he visited a mosque late Wednesday. 
AFP: The United States is still looking into the past of Iran’s president-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad, and the White House said Friday it would not be surprised if accusations that he took part in the 1979 US hostage crisis in Tehran were true. “We continue to look into it and establish all the facts. I don’t think it should be a surprise to anyone if it turns out to be true,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. 
AP: If the newly elected Iranian president turns out to have been a main participant in the holding of American hostages in Tehran, he won’t be the first top Iranian official with a role in the 1979 crisis. 
Daily Telegraph: The prospects for European Union mediation over Iran look ever grimmer as controversy over its president-elect mounts. Several Americans held hostage in the seizure
The Times: The Bush Administration is investigating allegations
International Herald Tribune: A new cloud appeared over the U.S. relationship with Iran on Thursday as President George W. Bush said a host of questions had been raised by allegations by several former American hostages that the president-elect of Iran was among their captors after radicals seized the American Embassy in 1979.