Iran Focus:Mehralizadeh, perhaps the most obscure candidate in the race, is a Vice-President in the present administration of President Mohammad Khatami, serving as the head of the National Sports Organization. Of the eight candidates cleared by the Guardians Council to run in the upcoming June 17 Presidential elections, Mehralizadeh is one of five former top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. He was was a regional commander of the ideological army from 1979 to 1981. Iran elections candidates: Mohsen Mehralizadeh
Iran Focus:Mehralizadeh, perhaps the most obscure candidate in the race, is a Vice-President in the present administration of President Mohammad Khatami, serving as the head of the National Sports Organization. Of the eight candidates cleared by the Guardians Council to run in the upcoming June 17 Presidential elections, Mehralizadeh is one of five former top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. He was was a regional commander of the ideological army from 1979 to 1981. Iran elections candidates: Mostafa Moin
Iran Focus: Moin served as chancellor of Shiraz University from 1981 to 1982 and has been a member of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council since 1983. Moin was a Majlis (parliament) deputy from 1982 to 1984, and again from 1988 to 1989. Moin served as the Culture and Higher Education Minister from 1989 to 1993 and served as Higher Education Minister from 1997 to 2003. Students and professors in Shiraz University in the early 1980s have signed a petition against Moin, saying that as chancellor, he actively purged dissidents and all those who did not conform to the dominant Islamic fundamentalist ideology. Iran elections candidates: Mostafa Moin
Iran Focus: Moin served as chancellor of Shiraz University from 1981 to 1982 and has been a member of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council since 1983. Moin was a Majlis (parliament) deputy from 1982 to 1984, and again from 1988 to 1989. Moin served as the Culture and Higher Education Minister from 1989 to 1993 and served as Higher Education Minister from 1997 to 2003. Students and professors in Shiraz University in the early 1980s have signed a petition against Moin, saying that as chancellor, he actively purged dissidents and all those who did not conform to the dominant Islamic fundamentalist ideology. CHRONOLGY-Iran’s nuclear programme
Reuters: Iran’s nuclear programme will be the biggest foreign policy challenge facing Iran’s next president who will be elected on June 17. Here are some major events since the nuclear programme first came to light: August 2002 – Exiled opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says there is a massive uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water plant at Arak. ElBaradei vows to pursue Iran over nuclear program
Reuters: Mohamed ElBaradei vowed on Monday to pursue his questioning of Iran over its atomic program after the governing board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog unanimously approved his third term as agency chief. “The Iran file will be closed when we close all the issues that are still open,” ElBaradei told reporters. “We are inching forward but I’d like to have more speedy cooperation on the part of Iran,” he said after the 35-nation governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approve his third four-year term.Two small explosions hit Iran city, no one hurt
Reuters: Two small devices hidden in rubbish bins exploded in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan on Monday, causing no casualties, police said.They said the first explosion damaged some cars and broke windows, while there was no damage from the second.
We want the right to party not a futile vote, say alienated youth
The Times: Gelled hair, shades, jeans and attitude: the youthof Isfahan were hanging out in the neon-lit night of Nazar
Street doing what young men do best smoking, posing and watching the girls. But they were feeling the pressure of their idle delight. We dont have any privacy, began Irbad, 21, who is unemployed. . Were not free in the street, were not free to party, were not free at home. They can search us at any time.”
Camera of Sean Penn, Journalist, Confiscated in Iran
Editor and Publisher: Iran was rocked by bombings on Sunday, killing at least nine and wounding more than 30, as dozens of journalists from around the world gathered in advance of the presidential election this Friday. One of those journalists, actor Sean Penn–covering the events for the San Francisco Chronicle–was involved in a separate incident, and had his video camera confiscated for a time. US swings behind UN’s ElBaradei, takes aim at nuclear Iran
Reuters: The governing board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog is expected to formally approve Mohamed ElBaradei’s third term as the agency’s chief on Monday after Washington ended its efforts to oust him, diplomats said. But the United States has not given up its battle against Iran’s nuclear programme, which Washington says is a front to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, insisting its atomic ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity. Some analysts suspect bin Laden slipped into Iran
Washington Times: Some within the U.S. intelligence community think Osama bin Laden is in eastern Iran, instead of the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan’s northwestern frontier, where most American officials think he is still on the run. U.S. officials said in interviews that the Iran theory, which is held by a minority, is based on bits of intelligence information and the fact that months of CIA intelligence operations, along with … 