Washington Times: While Iran continues to play an ongoing nuclear ping-pong match with the European Union, risking the nuclear stability of the Middle East and a possible showdown with the West, it is also eagerly preparing for its upcoming elections Friday. Carrying the flag of Islamic democracy, the “rule of law,” progress and change, Iran is attempting to compete in two worlds simultaneously as it hopes to emerge victorious in both.
Facing the Iranian elections
Iran’s sham election
Washington Times – Editorial: As Iranian voters get ready to go to the polls tomorrow in the first round of presidential elections, the avalanche of breathless media hype has already begun. We’ve been treated to plenty of pontificating over the supposed “liberals” (the enlightened ones who tell us what we want to hear about women’s rights and political freedom).
Iran’s election is a fraud
The Globe and Mail: Better that voters stay home than endorse the country’s democratic facade, say freedom monitors: Iranian student leader Akbar Atri recently declared that “reform is dead” in his country. His pessimism is understandable. After eight years of futile attempts at democratic reform by the once popular President Mohammad Khatami, Iranians face a political moment as dark as any encountered during their
country’s 26 years of theocratic dictatorship.
Khatami warns ‘organised movement’ bent on disrupting Iran polls
AFP: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Thursday expressed concern that there was an “organised movement” attempting to disrupt the country’s keenly-fought presidential election. Khatami did not specify who was behind the attempts to interfere with Friday’s vote, but his comments appeared to refer to allegations of smear campaigns and physical harassment reported by candidates across the board.
Iran Said to Admit Tests on Path to Atom Arms
New York Times: Iran has admitted that it conducted small-scale experiments to create plutonium, one of the pathways to building nuclear weapons, for five years beyond the date when it previously insisted it had ended all such work, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to report Thursday. In an oral statement to be delivered at a meeting of the nuclear watchdog agency’s board, the agency’s deputy director, Pierre Goldschmidt, will say Iran made the admissions after being confronted with the result of laboratory tests conducted on samples collected from an Iranian nuclear site.
Political Lines Blurred for Iran Vote
Washington Post: In a profound departure from a quarter-century of politics grounded in appeals to religious duty, the presidential campaigns unfolding across Iran’s capital betray not the slightest suggestion that this is a theocratic state. Hard-line conservatives are running as reformers. Reformers, after years of being thwarted by hard-liners, are running scared. And most ordinary Iranians are holding themselves aloof — unmoved, they say, by a political transformation that many
dismiss as largely cosmetic.
Tehran to Face Critical Report On Nuclear Policy
The Wall Street Journal: The United Nations nuclear watchdog will criticize Iran for misrepresenting the extent of its experiments with plutonium and for failing to answer outstanding questions about its nuclear program. The criticism, which will be presented in a speech today to the International Atomic Energy Agency board, is unlikely to scuttle European-led negotiations intended to wean Tehran of its alleged weapons ambitions.
Rafsanjani and his hitmen
Washington Times: It was 15 years ago, but still seems like yesterday. In mid-afternoon on March 14, 1990, I was sitting next to the driver taking me to the Istanbul airport, when we hit a traffic jam caused by an accident. Suddenly, a car carrying four men blocked our path. Another car pinned us in from behind.
Iran’s Plutonium Use Dates Back to 2003
Associated Press: Iran has acknowledged working with small amounts of plutonium, a possible nuclear arms component, for years longer than it had originally admitted to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency, according to a confidential report made available Wednesday to The Associated Press. The report, to be delivered as early as Thursday to a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said Tehran received sensitive technology that can be used as part of a weapons program earlier than it originally said it did.
Iran changes story on plutonium experiments – U.N.
Reuters: Iran has admitted to experimenting with producing plutonium, which can be used for atomic bombs, much more recently than it originally told the U.N. nuclear watchdog, according to a draft U.N. speech.
