Iran Audio Analysis: The Moscow Nuclear Talks — Scott Lucas with Monocle 24

EU’s Catherine Ashton & Iran’s Saeed JaliliLast night I spent more than 10 minutes with Monocle 24, setting out the issues at the nuclear talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China) and assessing the day’s developments.

The conclusion? Despite my pessimism before the talks and throughout the day over the discussions, there may be an opening for negotiations with Iran’s five-point proposal on uranium enrichment and eased sanctions — provided the US and Europe want an agreement short of a capitulation by Tehran, provided the details back up the general outline of the proposal, and provided the talks are not diverted by issues like intervention in Syria.

All big ifs…..

The discussion starts at the 17:53 mark.

Iran: Wer hat Angst vor einem toten Flötenspieler?

Flötenspieler Hassan Kassa‘i

Am Donnerstag, den 14. Juni 2012, ist der berühmte iranische Flötenspieler Hassan Kassa‘i in Isfahan gestorben. Er war 1927/8 zur Welt gekommen. Von politischen Bewegungen und Aktivitäten hatte er sich stets ferngehalten, aber sein Flötenspiel war unter den Iranern sehr populär. Aus diesem Grund ließ der iranische Geheimdienst nicht zu, dass die Menschen, die ihn kannten und schätzten, mit einer Trauerprozession Abschied von ihm nahmen. Deshalb raubte der Geheimdienst den Leichnam noch am selben Tag und zwang die Angehörigen, ihn in der Nacht zu begraben, damit keine große Menschenmenge zusammenfinden konnte. Eine Trauerfeier, die im Iran üblich ist, wurde auch noch zwei Tage nach dem Tod von Hassan Kassa‘i nicht zugelassen.
Der Anlass mag noch so unpolitisch sein, in einer Diktatur ist jede Menschenmenge, die nicht auf Veranlassung der Herrschenden zusammenkommt, ein Politikum.

Höre von der Flöte, wie sie erzählt,
von den Trennungen klagt,
vom Bambushain, wo sie abgesägt wurde:
von meiner Stimme bewegt
weinen Mann und Frau.
(aus einem Gedicht von Moulawi)

Source: Ali Schirasi

Wer hat im Iran Angst vor wem?

Hat die iranische Bevölkerung Angst vor der Regierung oder hat die iranische Regierung Angst vor der Bevölkerung?

Die folgenden drei Nachrichten geben uns Aufschluß darüber:

1) Iraj Ghaderi, ein sehr bekannter iranischer Schauspieler, ist Ende Mai gestorben. Seinen Angehörigen wurde keine ordentliche Beerdigung gestattet. Sie mussten ihn spät in der Nacht begraben.

2) Am 11. Juni 2012 (22. Chordat) war der dritte Jahrestag der Wahlfälschung, durch die Ahmadinejad nochmals Präsident werden konnte. Drei Tage später waren im ganzen Iran Millionen von Menschen auf der Straße, um dagegen zu protestieren. Allein in Teheran waren es mehr als drei Millionen. Von der Homepage der Grünen Bewegung wurde nun für den 14. Juni (25. Chordat) alle Menschen dazu aufgerufen, auf die Straße zu kommen und dort ohne ein Wort zu sagen, stumm zu protestieren. Die Regierung bereitete sich entsprechend mit allen ihr zur Verfügung stehenden Machtmitteln vor: In allen großen Städten wurden an wichtigen Punkten Sicherheitskräfte postiert.

3) Am Donnerstag, den 14. Juni 2012, ist der berühmte iranische Flötenspieler Hassan Kassa‘i in Isfahan gestorben. Der iranische Geheimdienst ließ nicht zu, dass die Menschen, die ihn kannten und schätzten, mit einer Trauerprozession Abschied von ihm nahmen. Deshalb raubte der Geheimdienst den Leichnam noch am selben Tag und zwang die Angehörigen, ihn in der Nacht zu begraben, damit keine große Menschenmenge zusammenfinden konnte. Eine Trauerfeier, die im Iran üblich ist, wurde auch noch zwei Tage nach dem Tod von Hassan Kassa‘i nicht zugelassen.

Niemand weiß besser als Ajatollah Chamene‘i , dass nur ein kleiner Funke fehlt, um die iranische Gesellschaft explodieren zu lassen.

Source: ALI Schirasi

Wasserprobleme in Teilen Irans

Wasser schleppen gehört mittlerweile zum Alltag der Familien

Geborstene Wasserleitungen sorgen für Unmut in der Bevölkerung

Wasserversorgung mit Plastikbehältern

Dieses “Trinkwasser” verteilen die Verantwortlichen in den betroffenen Gegenden

Ergebnis: große Flächen liegen brach

Source: Mehr News

Google Getting More Requests From Democracies to Censor

By NICOLE PERLROTH

Government censorship is on the rise — and not just in the countries you would expect, according to Google.

The search giant said that between July and December 2011, it received more than 1,000 requests from governments around the globe to remove content or turn over information about its users. It complied with over half those cases, which are detailed in its twice a year Global Transparency Report released on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen over the past couple years has been troubling, and today is no different,” Dorothy Chou, a Google senior policy analyst, wrote in a blog post. “When we started releasing this data, in 2010, we noticed that government agencies from different countries would sometimes ask us to remove political content that our users had posted on our services. We hoped this was an aberration. But now we know it’s not.”

In the last half of 2011, Google said it received 467 court orders for the removal of more than 7,000 items. It complied with an average of 65 percent of those orders. It also received more than 561 informal requests to remove more than 4,979 items. It complied with 47 percent of those cases. These numbers do not reflect censorship in countries like Iran and China, which routinely censor content from Google without notifying the company.

Google said it was alarmed by the number of government requests to censor political speech, particularly from Western democracies like the United States, Spain and Poland. Google said it received a request from Canada’s passport-issuing agency to take down a YouTube video of one of its citizens urinating on his passport and flushing it down a toilet. (It did not.)

The company received more requests for user data from United States authorities than it did from any other country. The number of userremoval requests from American authorities jumped 70 percent from the first to the second half of last year. Google received 6,321 requests to turn over information about users from American authorities, though that figure also includes requests from United States government on behalf of other governments with which it has diplomatic agreements. Its compliance rate in those cases — 93 percent — was higher than its compliance rate for any other country.

It said it did not comply in one case where a local law enforcement agency asked it to remove YouTube videos it said showed police brutality.

Full Text

Source: NYT

Iran: Talks ‘Test for the West’; West: No Explicit Right to Enrichment

by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI

Press Roundup provides a selected summary of news from the Farsi and Arabic press and excerpts where the source is in English. 

5 p.m. IRDT, 29 Khordad/June 18 The new round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany — began in Moscow at 2:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and lasted about two hours. The P5+1 has been pressing Iran to immediately suspend uranium enrichment at 19.75 percent, ship out its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and shut down the Fordow facility near Qom.Iran has been pushing for the suspension of at least some of the sanctions imposed by the European countries and for P5+1 recognition of Iran’s right to enrich uranium. “These negotiations are a great test for the West, as to whether they can tolerate Iran’s progress,” Mehr News Agency, which is owned by the Organization for Islamic Propaganda, quoted Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, as saying just before entering the talks.

First Day of Iran Nuclear Negotiations in Moscow: ‘Not Positive’

by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI

Press Roundup provides a selected summary of news from the Farsi and Arabic press and excerpts where the source is in English. 

7:35 a.m. IRDT, 30 Khordad/June 19 The first day of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany — ended on Monday evening in Moscow. According to IRNA, Iran’s state news agency, “Just like the previous rounds of talks in Turkey and Iraq, the participating delegations were involved in bilateral talks between the morning and afternoon” formal negotiation sessions. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the first round of talks between Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who leads the P5+1 negotiation team, took about half an hour. The reporters had been provided with video-conferencing access to the meeting, but after a while the feed was cut off.After the formal talks ended, Jalili also met with Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia’s National Security Council and former chief of the FSB, the successor to the KGB. Little was reported on what the two men discussed. But Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who heads the Russian delegation, told reporters, “The difficulty here is not only quite a distance between the positions but also the sequencing. What comes first, what comes next, what this reciprocity means. It’s very complex. The logic of the negotiations is extremely complicated.”

Iranian-Canadian academics slam Carleton for hosting Ayatollah Khomeini love-in

Ten Iranian-Canadian academics have written a letter to Carleton University President Roseann O’Reilly Runte to criticize the university for hosting a conference honouring Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founding dictator of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The conference, titled “The Contemporary Awakening and Imam Khomeini’s Thoughts,” was organized by the Iranian embassy in Ottawa and the Iranian Cultural Association of Carleton University, a student group headed by Ehsan Mohammadi, son of Hamid Mohammadi, who is the cultural counselor at the Iranian embassy in Ottawa.

Those wishing to attend the conference were asked to email the “Cultural Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” which is run out of the Iranian embassy.

In an email to Maclean’s, Carleton University spokesman Steven Reid said the university was not involved in the event — which was held on university property and promoted on Carleton’s website. The university issued a statement saying that views expressed by speakers at events organized by student groups do not reflect the views of the university as a whole.

Supreme Leader says Iran will not give in to ‘illogical demands’

Source: Mehr News Agency, Tehran

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that the enemies should be aware of the fact that they will get nowhere with making “unreasonable demands” from the Iranian nation.

The Leader made the remarks during a meeting with a number of Iranian officials and ambassadors of Muslim countries to Tehran on Monday, which was held on the occasion of Mab’ath, the anniversary of the appointment of Hazrat Muhammad (S) to prophethood.

“The enemies of the system should learn a lesson from their unsuccessful experience of confrontation with the patient and striving Iranian nation, and be aware that arrogance, sense of superiority, and unreasonable demands in dealing with a nation that has learned resistance and unity from the Quran will go nowhere,” he stated.

Iran will seek three-step strategy in Moscow talks: Envoy

Source: Press TV

Iran says it will seek a three-step strategy in the ongoing round of talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) in Moscow.

The Iranian negotiating delegation is led by Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili (right), and the P5+1 group is headed by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

A member of the Iranian negotiating delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that during the first phase of the Moscow talks, the Iranian delegation will criticize the other party for squandering chances after the negotiations in Baghdad and refusing to hold deputy-level talks. He said the P5+1 has thus dealt a blow to the talks in Moscow.

The Iranian diplomat said Tehran will also give clear and well-documented responses based on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Iran: Arrests announced for assassination ring

Source: Radio Zamaneh

The Iranian Minister of Intelligence announced on Sunday that 20 people have been arrested as part of its operation aimed at “identifying and destroying” the people who targeted Iran’s nuclear scientists for assassination.

The Fars News Agency reports that Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said: “Since the file is still under investigation, we have to wait a while before all the charges have been confirmed and documented, but in general the charges are far more than what was stated in the last announcement by the Intelligence Ministry.”

On Thursday, the ministry announced the arrest of people responsible for assassinating two Iranian nuclear scientists, Majid Shahriyari and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, as well as the latter’s driver, Reza Ghashghavi.

Earlier this year, the ministry had also announced the arrest of Ali Jamali Fashi, who later appeared on state TV claiming responsibility for the death of Massoud Ali Moahmmadi, another Iranian scientist, who was killed in December 2009 after a bomb exploded in front of his home.

Jamali Fashi gave a step-by-step description of his recruitment by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence organization. He was executed last month.

The Iranian Intelligence Minister accused Israel of using territory in one of Iran’s neighbouring countries to launch its alleged terrorist operations. He stressed, however, that the government of the neighbouring country is not aware of these operations.

He said that such a situation in a neighbouring country cannot be tolerated and must be addressed as soon as possible.

Three Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated on the streets of Tehran, while another escaped an assassination attempt.

Iran has accused the U.S. and Israel of orchestrating the attacks on Iran’s scientists. While the United States has denied the charge, so far the Israeli government has not denied the allegations.

The Revolutionary Guards Before and After 2009: Two Acts of a Coup

By Bahram Rafiei, Rooz Online

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with Basij head Mohammad Reza Naqhdi (center) and IRGC chief Mohammad Ali Jafari (right). IRGC and military commanders are appointed by Khamenei.

“Any action to launch a velvet revolution in Iran will be crushed immediately. If political groups and parties in Iran are realistic they will not move towards planning or implementing such scenarios. Everybody must accept the people’s votes and respect them. Iranian people are Muslims and want Islam and they view the Imam’s line and that of the supreme leader to be the pure path of Mohammad’s Islam and will never deviate from this course.”

These are the final remarks of General Yadoolah Javani, the former head of the political office of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to a reporter of Sobh Sadegh weekly, the official newspaper of the IRGC just 4 days prior to the elections for the 10th president of Iran in June of 2009. The general was speaking to a reporter from the publication that he oversaw.

Minoudasht, a truly color spectacular adventure

Source: Iran Daily

Minoudasht is one of the eastern cities known as the bride of the northern Golestan Province. This area has been known invariably as the Green Plain, Plain of Heaven, Plain of Minou and presently Minoudasht.

Most residents of Minoudasht are farmers or livestock breeders. Major products of Minoudasht include rice, flour and cotton. Agro products of the district include fruits, rice, grain, wheat, barley, peanuts, soya and tobacco.

Hand-woven carpets and Turkmen rugs as well as silk cloth and needlework are the main handicrafts of the city. Located 98 km from Gorgan along Tehran-Mashhad Road, the city extends over 7 square kilometers and has a population of about 32,000.

The city is bordered by Semnan and Khorasan provinces to the south, Galikesh to the east, Azadshahr to the west and Gonbad-e Kavous to the north. It has also a 126-km border with Turkmenistan.

The Swinging Minarets of Isfahan

Photos by Abbas Poustindouz, Mehr News Agency

The Swinging Minaret (called Menar Jonban in Persian) is a mausoleum in Isfahan, Iran, entitled to Amu Abdoullah Ebne Mohammad Ebne Mahmmoud, a mystic who died in 1316 AD.

The building includes two minarets; they are 17 meters high from the ground level, with a distance between them of about 10 meters. When one of the minarets is shaken, the other one starts shaking simultaneously. So the vibration can be felt in the whole structure.

The mausoleum was built in 1316, while the minarets were added later by the architect Shaykh Bahai.

Dayer-Nakhiloo National Park: A Birds Paradise

Source: Iran Daily; photos by Saber Zamani, Mehr News Agency

A section of Mand Protected Zone in Bushehr province was converted into Dayer-Nakhiloo National Park in 2008. This park includes the four islands of Tahmadoon, Khan, Nakhiloo and Ummol-Karam.

Ummol-Karam Island,which extends over 70 hectares, and Nakhiloo Island are home to birds such as crab plover, egret, white swallow and rested terns, the Persian daily Hamshahri wrote.

View Larger Map

Nakhiloo and Ummol-Karam, covering an area of 20,000 hectares, annually host tens of thousands of migratory birds from northern lands who arrive here to stay during winter.

They make their nest by digging a sizable pit for laying eggs. Late April, the island’s landscape is transformed by the thousands of crab plovers laying eggs on the seashore. They seem like white stones from a distance.

The eggs hatch during July. Crab plovers and other migratory birds, which have spent winter here, leave the area in late August.

Main Enemies

“The main enemies of these birds are human beings,” said the deputy head of Department of Environment (DoE), Mohammad Baqer Nabavi.

“Illegal poachers have made a cement shelter at a depth of one meter near the seashore. They use this shelter for trapping birds of prey.”

 

Asked whether DoE has proper facilities for protecting the island, particularly during the breeding season, he said DoE has shortage of facilities, manpower and experts for preserving this habitat.

“Jackals and foxes are natural enemies of these birds,” he said. “Since these birds lay eggs on the seashore, tides also destroy the eggs and the chicks.”

Nabavi noted that close to 100,000 migratory birds lay eggs here since it is secure and has abundant food, then they migrate to colder regions.

Hunting nets and human-made structures, which are used for trapping birds of prey, are major threats facing the bird species.

Ummol-Karam Island is also home to giant tortoises that come to the coast to lay eggs.

Remember Iran Flashback: 18 June 2009 — Mousavi Addresses 100,000s in Tehran

EA’s Iran Live Coverage on 18 June 2009:

1715 GMT: The rally, estimated by BBC as “100,000″ people, has taken place peacefully in Tehran, with Mir Hossein Mousavi addressing the crowd.

I have just finished an interview with BBC World. It was clear, from preparation as well as the actual discussion, that BBC — with their correspondent in Tehran effectively under “lockdown” — is increasingly relying on “talking heads” with connections to Iran to provide information on detentions and political manoeuvres. (Sub-text: EA readers, please keep sending any information/feedback you might have.)

1520 GMT: Revelation or political stunt? Iranian state-run media is reporting that authorities “thwarted a terrorist plot to plant bombs in mosques and other crowded areas in Tehran on election day”.

1425 GMT: The health of Ibrahim Yazdi, who was detained yesterday in a hospital in Tehran and taken to Evin Prison, is reported as critical. Apparently, Yazdi has been returned to hospital and his family called to immediately go there.

1335 GMT: Intriguing coverage of the opposition rallies on Press TV’s English-language website. The lead is a statement by a Mousavi advisor that those causing violence are “not supporters of, or linked to Mousavi or his camp.” The report puts a question mark over the official results (“According to the Interior Ministry [Mousavi] has lost to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even in the East-Azerbaijan province where he hails from”) and notes “mass rallies by hundreds of thousands of Mousavi’s supporters”.

Remember Iran Flashback: Sifting Information from Rumours on Twitter

Three years ago, as we began our Live Coverage of Iran, we found ourselves in an emerging debate about the changing nature of politics and media: was it possible to use social media to enhance coverage of important events?

On 18 June 2009, we decided to get beyond the simple label of a “Twitter Revolution” and test what we were seeing. We had noticed a young journalist named Josh Shahryar putting out a daily “Green Brief”, based on his exhaustive watch of the claims on social media.

Remember Iran: An EA Special — Three Years Ago Today, A Supreme Leader’s Dilemma

The March of the Millions, three days after the disputed Presidential election, is an established part of the narrative of the Green Movement’s challenge. What has been largely forgotten — at least in my memory — was that there was other large demonstrations before the regime decided to crack down on the marches.

One of those occurred on 18 June 2009, as many tens of thousands of Iranians responded to the call for a “Sea of Black” to mourn the eight protesters killed in the March of the the Millions. They were addressed by Mir Hossein Mousavi, the Presidential candidate who is now under strict house arrest in Tehran. We have re-posted our Live Coverage of the day’s events.

The Latest from Iran (18 June): The Nuclear Talks in Moscow

2046 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Julian Borger of The Guardian reveals both the Iranian PowerPoint presentation rejecting the 5+1 proposal of “stop, shut, and ship” 20% enriched uranium and Tehran’s five-point plan:

 

1) The right to enrich uranium, coupled with the ‘operationalisation’ of the Supreme Leader’s fatwa against nuclear weapons. [Lead Iranian negotiator Saeed] Jalili suggested this could be done in the form of a UN document, in which Iran promised not to pursue weapons in return for continuing to enrich; 

2) Relief from sanctions in return for cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency;

3) Nuclear cooperation in the fields of civilian nuclear energy production and nuclear safety;

4) Confidence-building measures, possibly involving limits on production of 20% uranium;

5) Non-nuclear issues like cooperation on counter-narcotics plus regional matters like Syria and Bahrain.

 

2036 GMT: Parliament v. President. One note of compromise amid the political tensions — Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and President Ahmadinejad have agreed on adding 3000 Toman (about $2.40 at offical rate) to monthly support payments to pay increased bread prices caused by subsidy cuts.

Iran News Round Up (June 18)

Iran holds nuclear talks with G5+1 Group in Moscow; Iranian nuclear negotiators pessimistic on talks, reject more talks on 20% uranium enrichment in Moscow talks; Ahmadinejad says no plan to establish political party in future

Politics Ahmadinejad says he does not intend to organize a political party after he finishes his second tenure in office. A place visited by Supreme Leader Khamenei in Kurdistan develops into a shrine [Ghadamgah]. Military and Security The Basij praises the Intelligence Ministry for arresting the perpetrators behind the assassinations of nuclear scientists in Iran. Mohammad-Hossein Saffar Harandi, cultural adviser to the Revolutionary Guards commander, indirectly criticizes Ahmadinejad: “He plays all sorts of games not to follow the orders of the Guardian Jurist, and… he deceptively and instrumentally uses the Imams and the Imam of the Era and says: ‘When we have the Imam of the Era himself, we do not need his deputy!’” Jazayeri, General Staff cultural and defense propaganda commander, says the General Staff will file a complaint against parliamentarian Ali Mottahari, who has publicly accused the Revolutionary Guards of intervening in the latest parliamentary elections. The Student Basij Organization interview of Quds Force commander QassemSuleimani in 20016, in which he discusses the United States presence in Iraq.

In Case You Missed It: “Iran Feels Heat as Europe Ship Classifiers Halt Work”

Reuters Profiles UANI’s Latest Campaign Success

By Jonathan Saul

Reuters

Germany’s Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has stopped verifying safety and environmental standards for Iran’s biggest shipping companies, a letter from the company showed, the last big European classification society to pull back as sanctions heat up. ..

In a letter sent to U.S. pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) dated June 15 and seen by Reuters, GL said it had stopped offering services to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).

“It is of the utmost importance that we maintain our good reputation,” GL said in the letter. “Therefore, we have pursued the decision to cease rendering services to the Iranian companies mentioned.” …

UANI, which includes former U.S. ambassadors on its board and is funded by private donations, had said GL’s cover for IRISL was in violation of EU sanctions. UANI, which seeks to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons, had also pressured Bureau Veritas before the French firm stopped its Iran cover. …

Mark Wallace, UANI’s chief executive and a former U.S. ambassador, welcomed GL’s decision.

“The shipping industry is now set to help deny the Iranian regime critical access to global trade and seaborne crude oil exports,” Wallace said in a statement.

“GL is absolutely correct in stating that working with the Iranian regime is badly damaging to a corporation’s good name and reputation,” he added. …

Click here to read the full article.
Click here to read UANI’s June 12 letter to GL.

Click here to visit UANI’s Shipping Campaign page.