1.
The present and previous presidents of Argentina have both stood up at the UN General Assembly and politely requested that the government of Iran extradite the AMIA massacre suspects it is sheltering.
Archive for the 'Iran' Category
This is a guest post by Dan Yurman of Idaho Samizdat, a blog covering nuclear energy and non-proliferation issues.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed in a speech marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that it has the capacity to make “weapons grade”uranium which could lead to the fabrication of an operational nuclear bomb. Iran has also been developing a 1,200 mile range ballistic missile which could be used to deliver one. The question for Western powers, and especially Israel ,which Iran has repeatedly vowed to destroy, is how credible are these claims?
Ariel Ilan Roth maintains that Israel’s objection to Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is not based on a fear that those weapons would be used against it as he believes that the certainty of a devastating Israeli response is likely to deter the ayatollahs.
Here’s my latest piece for AJC’s Reality Check on Iran’s nuclear program, in the light of the regime’s announcement that it will be enriching uranium to 20 per cent. Included is an extended interview with French UN Ambassador Gérard Araud, who just assumed the Presidency of the UN Security Council.
 |
The Tehran Symphony Orchestra has been wending its way around Europe performing a piece nauseatingly entitled “Peace and Friendship Symphony,” by Majid Entezami, and described - in a brilliant piece by Michael Kimmelman - as “a four-movement jeremiad of martial bombast and almost unfathomable incompetence and silliness.” As Kimmelman points out, protests did greet the orchestra in certain cities, but I’m not aware of Naomi Klein, Brian Eno, John Pilger or any other minor radical celebrity urging a boycott.
This is piece by Kenneth Bandler of AJC is cross-posted from JTA.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is not likely to take a seat at the U.N. Security Council’s horseshoe table, but the Hezbollah terrorist organization he has led since 1992 now has a toehold inside the world body’s most prestigious room.
Continue reading ‘Hezbollah gains a toehold inside U.N. Security Council’
On February 1st, France assumes the Presidency of the UN Security Council with Iran likely to be the dominant issue. This morning, I interviewed Gérard Araud, France’s Ambassador to the United Nations, for AJC’s new internet TV show, Reality Check. He was refreshingly candid. Watch the video below for the key points he made.
According to Germany’s Spiegel magazine, Iran’s regime is being pressured “on the question of who exactly is responsible for the country’s nuclear program — and what this says about its true nature. The government has consistently told the IAEA that the only agency involved in uranium enrichment is the National Energy Council, and that its work was exclusively dedicated to the peaceful use of the technology.”
Just a note to direct readers to an interesting piece in Tuesday’s New York Times about Iran’s use of tunnels to protect its nuclear facilities. The article quotes Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak as saying that the plant near Qom is
… located in bunkers that cannot be destroyed through a conventional attack.
Quite so.
1.
Readers with good memories will recall the appointment of Jorge Palacios, a disgraced former Federal Police officer to head the city of Buenos Aires’s first autonomous police force. To put it mildly, it wasn’t an idea that prospered. Palacios was obliged to resign when indicted on charges of being involved in the cover up of the AMIA massacre and is now in prison while being investigated on charges of organizing illegal wiretaps. Among those who had their phone conversations illicitly listened in on was Sergio Burstein, a well known campaigner for justice for the families of the survivors of the AMIA attack.
Continue reading ‘Israeli Embassy Controls Buenos Aires City Hall’
A small step towards justice in the AMIA case was taken yesterday when the Cámara Nacional de Casación Penal (Argentina’s final criminal appeal court) ordered that Carlos Telleldín be retried on charges relating to his role in the preparation of the AMIA massacre. The decision arises from a previous Supreme Court decision which held that the early findings of the initial investigation into the atrocity are legally valid.
In Iran, it’s a case of escalation, escalation, escalation. The Times of London reports that “Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb.” Meanwhile, the repression of dissidents takes on a crueller, uglier quality. If proof was needed that the chador is a symbol of humiliation, look no further than the photo of student leader Majid Tavakoli, forced to pose while wearing one by the regime’s thugs (a tactic that has backfired now that Majid’s male supporters are distributing photos of themselves adorned in the same garb.) Then there are the additional arrests of dissidents for allegedly tearing photos of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamist tyrant who seized power in 1979. Then there are the three young Americans arrested by the regime and now likely to face trial on espionage charges. Are we done? No. Hamas leader Khaled Meshal paid a visit to his paymasters over the weekend. And don’t forget Hugo Chavez; Venezuela’s answer to Robert Mugabe doesn’t want to feel left out, so he’s declaring fealty to the theocrats of Tehran too.
The Strategic Security blog of the Federation of American Scientists is obligatory reading for military affairs wonks (I’m mentioning no names here) and usually doesn’t have much to interest those who think that a MANPAD might be a kind of apartment. However, Z Word readers in the latter category ought to take the time to read this post. It summarizes the content of a paper - written by the post’s author and a colleague - that analyzes current knowledge of Iran’s recently revealed Fordow uranium enrichment facility and attempts some intelligent guesswork about what purpose it might serve within the broader context of Iran’s nuclear program. The last line of the post goes as follows:
It is getting harder and harder to give Iran the benefit of the doubt.
Go and read the rest yourself.
TEHRAN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday there was no need to hold talks with the West over the country’s disputed nuclear activities.
“Iran’s nuclear issue has been resolved … We will hold no talks (with major powers) over this issue. There is no need for talks,” Ahmadinejad told state television.
So that’s that. Or is it?
 |
This is a guest post by Kenneth Bandler of AJC.
Wrapping up his whirlwind Latin America tour, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must have been very pleased that he had cancelled his previously planned visit to Brazil in May. No doubt his host, Brazilian President President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is similarly delighted. Each is enjoying international attention as leaders in their respective regions of the world.
