Iran's standoff: Khamenei vs Ahmadinejad. No matter how he twists and turns, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad keeps sinking. No sooner than he appeared to have mended his frayed relationship with supreme leader Ali Khamenei - he was photographed sitting dutifully at Khamenei's feet during a religious ceremony over the weekend - new assaults against him have begun. The motivations of conservatives around Khamenei trying to discredit him seem clear: upcoming parliamentary elections are an opportunity to deny hardline supporters of the president the chance to win a clear parliamentary majority. And as their long-term goal, Iran's traditional conservatives and clerics, backed by Khamenei, are striving to prevent an Ahmadinejad protégé from becoming the next president in 2013. This intense power struggle broke into public view recently over Ahmadinejad's decision to dismiss intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi. Khamenei gave the president an ultimatum last week to reinstate the minister or resign.
The conservative backlash. The myth of 'isolated' Iran. New York, NY - Let's start with red lines. Here it is, Washington's ultimate red line, straight from the lion's mouth. Only last week Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta said of the Iranians: "Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they're trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that's what concerns us. And our red line to Iran is do not develop a nuclear weapon. That's a red line for us.
" How strange, the way those red lines continue to retreat. What if, however, there is no "red line", but something completely different? Banking on sanctions? Let's start here: In December 2011, impervious to dire consequences for the global economy, the US Congress - under all the usual pressures from the Israel lobby (not that it needs them) - foisted a mandatory sanctions package on the Obama administration (100 to 0 in the Senate and with only 12 "no" votes in the House). The ultimate target? Besides, even the Iranian opposition supports a peaceful nuclear programme. In rigged elections, 65% is the new 99% Dr. Soroush.
Abdulkarim Soroush, a religious thinker and a critic of the Iranian state, has written an open letter to the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, advising him to begin accepting criticism so that Iranians can move towards national reconciliation, civic life and modernity. Dr Soroush, who has had to live outside Iran for years and lectures at universities in Europe and the USA, has made openness to criticism the subject of his most recent letter to the Iranian leader.
He writes that Iran’s current conditions are a product of Khamenei’s refusal to accept criticism; conditions which he describes as follows: Regarding ‘the dominion of the faqih’ (the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ruling system), Dr Soroush writes that the theory “has no validity, either religiously or rationally, and many faqihs and thinkers oppose it.
But even as it stands, it means political dominion, not spiritual dominion, and it amounts to nothing more than rule by a faqih.” Women on the Frontline. Iran says Fordo uranium enrichment site runs under IAEA watch: TV. TEHRAN, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Asghar Soltanieh said all of the country's nuclear activities, including those at Fordo enrichment site, are under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog, the local satellite Press TV reported on Tuesday. Since two years ago, the agency is continuously monitoring all the activities in Fordo, Soltanieh told Press TV on Monday. Soltanieh said that the Islamic Republic needs the 20-percent enriched uranium, to be produced in Fordo, for the production of nuclear fuel plates required at the Tehran Research Reactor for producing radioisotopes for cancer treatment.
Soltanieh said that "every step we have taken so far has been and every step we will take in the future will be under the IAEA framework and surveillance," adding that "now with the 24-hour ( surveillance by) cameras and inspections, the enrichment activities in Natanz and Fordo are under the control of the IAEA. " Iranian actor arrested en route to women's World Cup | World news. Iranian actress Pegah Ahangarani has been arrested while travelling to the women's World Cup in Germany. A popular Iranian actor and outspoken supporter of the country's opposition movement has been arrested in Tehran after attempting to travel to Germany to take part in coverage of the women's World Cup. Pegah Ahangarani, 27, was scheduled to go to Germany to participate in TV programmes about the Fifa tournament, but was picked up from her home in the capital by security officials on Sunday.
Ahangarani fell foul of the Islamic regime when she publicly campaigned for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in Iran's 2009 presidential elections, but escaped arrest until recently because of her widespread popularity. She is the second woman to have been arrested in recent weeks in connection with the women's World Cup in Germany. According to Deutsche Welle, officials in Tehran have confirmed that Ahangarani is currently being held by the security agents of the Revolutionary Guards.