Knight Ridder Newspapers: As 150,000 U.S. troops battle to stabilize Iraq, some officials in the Bush administration are already planning to turn up the heat on another member of the president’s axis of evil. Officials in the White House and the Defense Department are developing plans to increase public criticism of Iran’s human rights record, offer stronger backing
to exiles and other opponents of Tehran’s repressive …
Bush administration planning to increase pressure on Iran
US wants Iraq, Afghanistan in WTO but not Iran
AFP: The United States said Tuesday it was backing Iraq’s and Afghanistan’s bids to join the World Trade Organization but said there was no consensus on Iran’s effort to join. Baghdad and Kabul were expected to present their candidacies December 13 to join the multilateral organization, which must make a unanimous recommendation.
Yawar warns of Iran’s interference in Iraq
UPI: Iraqi Interim President Ghazi Yawar warned Iran Tuesday against meddling in Iraqi politics ahead of the Jan. 30
elections in Iraq. In an interview with the Washington Post, Yawar, a U.S.-educated civil engineer and Sunni Muslim tribal leader, said he was disappointed by political interference from Iran aimed at influencing the outcome of the Iraqi elections.
Egypt to try Iranian and Egyptian on spy charges
Reuters: Egypt will try an Iranian diplomat in absentia and a captured Egyptian on charges of spying and plotting to carry
out attacks at home and abroad, the public prosecutor said
on Tuesday.
Iranian diplomat, Egyptian charged in Egypt over assassination plot
AFP: Egypt said on Tuesday it has charged an Iranian
diplomat and an Egyptian national over a plot to assassinate an unidentified public figure.
Egyptian Mahmud Aid Dabbus is accused of being paid
50,000 dollars by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to kill the unnamed target and of spying for the Islamic republic,
charges that carry a possible 25-year prison term.
FEATURE – Young Iranian criminals fear execution day
Reuters: Instead of celebrating his 18th birthday at home with friends and family this month, Ali Torabi will be wondering if it will be his last. Torabi is one of at least 12 juvenile offenders sentenced to death by Iran’s hardline courts and held in detention centres until they are deemed old enough to be executed without attracting international criticism, human
rights activists say.
Seven drug traffickers hanged publicly in Iran
AFP: Seven drug traffickers were hanged publicly on Tuesday
in a park in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, the Kayhan evening newspaper reported. It said the men had
been found guilty of involvement in international narcotics trafficking and attacks on security forces. They were hanged in Zahedan’s Laleh Park.
Iran sentences Al-Qaeda members after secret trial
AFP: Iran confirmed Tuesday that it has tried and sentenced fugitive members of Al-Qaeda detained on its soil, but maintained a tight secrecy over which members of Osama bin Laden’s network were in the Islamic republic.
Iran, EU nuclear talks to begin next week: official
AFP: Negotiations between officials from Iran and Britain, France and Germany aimed at building on the Islamic republic’s agreement to freeze sensitive nuclear work are to start next week, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday. Iran’s top national security official and nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said the first round of the dialogue was likely to involve himself, the foreign ministers of the EU’s “big three” …
Iran: Torture Used to Obtain Confessions
Human Rights Watch: Secret squads operating under the authority of the Iranian judiciary have used torture to force detained Internet journalists and civil society activists to write self-incriminatory confession letters, Human Rights Watch said today.
