Iran Focus: Brussels, Jul. 06 – Iranian officials are becoming increasingly anxious that the European Union may change its policy toward the clerical state after the consolidation of power by the ultra-conservative faction led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. So far the official line touted by the European Union’s foreign policy point-man Javier Solana and other pronouncements by EU foreign ministers have been signalling a “wait-and-see” approach to Iran after the election
of hard-line candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 06 – Iran’s President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad harshly turned down demands by Kurdish members of the Majlis (Parliament) to include Iranian Kurds in his cabinet, a Kurdish deputy said after meeting Ahmadinejad. Mohammad Karimian, a deputy from the Kurdish region of Sardasht and Piranshahr in western Iran, was …

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 06 – Three men accused of armed robbery were hanged in public this morning in the
north-eastern Iranian city of Mashad, the state-run news
agency reported.
The three, identified as Ali Adelzadeh, Arash Gholamian-Khorrasani, and Davoud Daliran, were accused of robbery.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 6 – The top brass of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps vowed to defend the country’s newly-elected ultra-conservative President in the face of “smear campaigns”, calling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “a model Islamist”. “It’s necessary to declare the readiness of the green-uniform Guards and capable Bassijis … to support and cooperate with Your Excellency’s serving government,” Major General Rahim Safavi, Commandant General of the …

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 06 – Guards in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, where political prisoners are held, carried out a raid on cells in Ward 350 on Tuesday, injuring prisoners and confiscating personal belongings and written materials. The raid was carried out at 6 a.m., when prison guards led by an officer called Abbasi charged into the ward.