Iran Focus: The commander of Revolutionary Guards in the southern province of Kerman told thousands of his troops and members of the para-military Bassij that U.S. forces were not capable of defeating Moqtada Sadrs forces in Iraq and were massacring Shiite children in the south.
Revolutionary Guards commander: U.S. is massacring Shiite children
Iranian agents arrested in Iraq
Iran Focus: Some 100 Iranians holding fake Afghan identity cards were arrested on August 8 in Diyala Province, bordering Iran, according to sources in the area. They crossed the border illegally and entered Iraqi territory and initial investigations showed they had ties with the Iranian regimes security services.
Iranian agents arrested in Iraq
Iran Focus: Some 100 Iranians holding fake Afghan identity cards were arrested on August 8 in Diyala Province, bordering Iran, according to sources in the area. They crossed the border illegally and entered Iraqi territory and initial investigations showed they had ties with the Iranian regimes security services.
Tehran snubs London over gunboats
Iran Focus: Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, the spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards, rejected British demands for the return of military boats and equipment seized by Iran, saying that Tehran is awaiting for further answers from London before making any decision.
Tehran paper calls U.S. in Iraq hostage of Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran Focus: A state-owned Iranian daily, Kayhan, described the United States in Iraq hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It is now becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. in Iraq is the hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran the daily wrote in its lead article.
Executions on the rise in Iran
Iran Focus: A religious court in Tehran sentenced two men to execution, bringing to more than 110 the number of people hanged since January 2004. Thet two were identified only by their first names as Mohammad and Fereidoon.
Dozens have been hanged in recent days in Iran, as the country goes through another spate of politically-motivated executions.
Turning the heat on Tehran
BBC: With Iraq’s government overthrown, Washington now sounds increasingly bellicose about Iran.
It is lobbying hard for Tehran to be referred to the UN Security Council for breaking agreements to stop nuclear development.
It wants fellow board members from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to take action against Iran when it meets on 13 September.
Iran’s hardliners roll back Khatami’s reforms, but how far?
AFP: Iran’s dominant conservatives have been rolling back the tentative liberalisation of reformist President Mohammad Khatami since winning control of parliament in disputed polls earlier this year, but it remains unclear how far to the right they will take the Islamic republic.
EU calls on Iran to cooperate with nuclear watchdog
Reuters: The Dutch government, holders of the rotating European Union presidency, has called on Iran to do more to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Dutch made the call in a statement late on Monday after a visit by Hassan Rohani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and after EU foreign ministers discussed the issue of Iran at a meeting in the Netherlands at the weekend.
Shock, outrage over execution of 16-year-old girl in Iran
Iran Focus: News of the execution of a sixteen-year-old girl in northern Iran, first broken by Iran Focus, has been met with shock and outrage around the world. In a press statement on Monday, Amnesty International expressed outrage at the execution of Ateqeh Sahaleh on Sunday, August 15, in the town of Neka in Mazandaran Province.
