UPI: The U.S. State Department told Saudi Arabian officials that the United States has a view of what freedom entails and that Middle Eastern countries like Iran will need to answer to the basic hopes and rights of its people. Counselor Philip Zelikow from the State Department speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington was discussing the future of U.S.-Saudi relations.

Iran Focus: Tehran, May 26 – A warrant officer of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shot to death a young man in cold blood at an underground railway station in the city of Karaj, west of
the Iranian capital, sparking off widespread clashes between angry protesters and security forces in several neighbourhoods of the city.

Iran Focus: London, May 26 – A prominent British human rights advocate strongly criticised Human Rights Watch over the New York-based organization’s controversial report on an Iranian opposition group, saying that the “disreputable and biased” investigation that led to the report has “seriously tarnished the reputation of Human Rights Watch, and undermined public confidence in the integrity of your human rights work as a whole”.

CBC News: Ottawa’s decision to designate Iran’s biggest opposition group as a terrorist organization renders Canada’s outrage at the killing of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi meaningless, opposition members of Parliament claim.

Iran Focus: Washington, DC, May 26 – A press briefing is being held today in the National Press Building in the United States’ capital on a recent report by Human Rights Watch on the Iranian opposition which has so far been met with international criticism. Human Rights Watch’s 28-page report on alleged human rights violations by the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI, …