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Mass Protest Today In Tehran’s Streets.

June 20, 2009 By

tehrans_Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday sternly cut off any compromise over Iran’s disputed presidential election. In a lengthy sermon, he declared the election valid and warned of violence if protesters continued, as they have pledged, to fill the streets in defiance of the government.

Opposition leaders who failed to halt the protests, he said, “would be responsible for bloodshed and chaos.” The tough words seemed to dash hopes for a peaceful solution to what the opposition calls a fraudulent election last week, plunging Iran into its gravest crisis since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Opposition leaders called for another huge rally today, setting the stage for a possible showdown between protesters and security forces, perhaps a violent one.

Another sign of possible resistance came shortly after nightfall Friday in Tehran. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “Allahu akbar” — “God is great” — rang from rooftops in what’s become a nightly ritual of opposition unity.

Khamenei’s sermon, which was broadcast around Iran and the world, presents Mir Hossein Mousavi, who the opposition says was the real winner of the June 12 election, with an excruciating choice. The former prime minister must decide whether to escalate his challenge to Iran’s religious leaders and risk a bloody showdown or abandon his support for a popular uprising that his candidacy inspired.

During the tough sermon at Tehran University during Friday prayers, Khamenei hardened his stance on the election results and dismissed allegations of fraud. “Perhaps 100,000 votes, or 500,000, but how can anyone tamper with 11 million votes?” he asked.

“If the political elite ignore the law — whether they want it or not — they would be responsible for the chaos and bloodshed.”

Show by government supporters

Tens of thousands of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s supporters gathered for the sermon in a clear show of force to counter the mass rallies by protesters. State-controlled television showed the streets filled with people near Tehran University, where the Friday prayer is given.

The ayatollah also offered muted criticism of pro-government militias and Ahmadinejad for their roles in the crisis.

Newspapers said Thursday that a group of members of Parliament reported that the pro-government militia known as the Basij was responsible for the attack on a student dormitory in Tehran and a housing complex called Sobhan this week. Students said that two women and three men were killed.

In his sermon, Khamenei criticized those who carried out that attack. “Have you calculated the impact of going to the dormitories in the name of the leader?” he asked. “Muscle-flexing after elections is not right. Put an end to this.”

As he concluded his sermon, Khamenei invoked the names of Shiite saints and began weeping.

Among the worshippers seen on TV at the mammoth prayer hall was Ahmadinejad and one of his three election rivals, former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei.

Mousavi and the other opposition candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, weren’t shown on the state TV coverage and apparently didn’t attend Khamenei’s sermon.

A spokesman for Mousavi said Friday that the opposition leader isn’t under arrest but isn’t allowed to speak to journalists or stand at a microphone at rallies.

Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf told The Associated Press from Paris that it was even becoming difficult to reach people close to Mousavi.

Makhmalbaf said he hadn’t heard from Mousavi’s camp since Khamenei’s address.

Mounting U.S. criticism

The U.S. House and Senate both approved a resolution Friday condemning “the ongoing violence” by the Iranian government and its suppression of the Internet and cell phones. It also expressed support for Iranian citizens who embrace freedom.

The House voted 405-1 for the Republican-authored resolution. The lone holdout was Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, who said, “I have admired President Obama’s cautious approach to the situation in Iran and I would have preferred that we in the House had acted similarly.”

President Barack Obama was asked Friday in an interview with CBS News’ Harry Smith what he made of Khamenei’s remarks.

“I’m very concerned, based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made, that the government of Iran recognize that the world is watching,” Obama said.

“And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is — and is not.”

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At Odds Over Attack On Iran

June 13, 2009 By

israelis_Israelis say they will not sit back and allow neighbor to build nuclear weapons Israel is standing by its right to take independent military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities despite pointed warnings from Washington not to break ranks with United States strategy. Uzi Arad, the national security adviser to Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told a radio interviewer on Thursday the government will not stand by and watch Iran acquire the ability to make nuclear weapons. Arad said that during this week’s visit to Washington, Netanyahu “clarified that Israel reserves itself operational freedom and several of the most senior figures in the [President Barack] Obama administration said ‘of course’.” This is in some contrast to what Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told a television interviewer on Wednesday.

Panetta said he recently went to Israel to talk to Netanyahu and warned him against striking at Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Netanyahu understands that if Israel goes it alone, it will mean big trouble. He knows that for the sake of Israeli security, they have to work together with others.” These views can be interpreted, of course, as simply differing inflections designed to appeal to domestic audiences. But it was noticeable during Netanyahu’s Washington visit that he only wanted to talk about the threat posed by Iran, especially when Obama was seeking clear support for the creation of a state for the Palestinians.

Nor could Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose frequent threats to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth feed international concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program, resist stirring the pot. On Wednesday he announced that Iran has test-fired a solid-fuel Sajjil-2 medium-range missile capable of delivering nuclear warheads to Israel, all U.S. bases in the Middle East and much of southeast Europe. Undoubtedly a reason for Ahmadinejad’s announcement was an attempt to gather nationalist support for the June 12 presidential election when he faces three moderate candidates, at least two of whom are open to Obama’s offer of attempting to overcome 30 years of hostility between Washington and Tehran through dialogue.

Ahmadinejad is increasingly blamed at home for high inflation and unemployment because of his anti-Western bluster. Iran is the second largest oil exporter in the world, but the economy is suffering from three sets of sanctions imposed by the United Nations because of Tehran’s duplicity over its nuclear program, which it insists is solely for peaceful purposes — despite contrary evidence. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Tehran will not be able to make a nuclear weapon before 2013, but Israeli intelligence maintains Iran could have the bomb anytime between now and 2012.

A 114-page study of how Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear sites done by Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies and published last week concludes it is questionable whether Israel has the military capability to destroy Iran’s nuclear program or even delay it for several years. The study says that because Iran has dozens of nuclear development facilities, many of them unknown, Israel’s only option is to try to destroy three key sites. Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun

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SKorea Won’t Let North Korea Use Nuclear Test To Win Concessions

June 9, 2009 By

south_koreaSouth Korea’s president said Saturday his country won’t give in to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, while Pyongyang accused Seoul of sending patrol boats into its territorial waters — the scene of past bloody naval clashes.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency alleged the patrol boats were sailing into North Korean waters daily around the rivals’ disputed western sea border. The Korean-language report warned that aggressors would be dealt “merciless punishment that will be beyond imagination.”

The claim was rejected by Seoul, which two days ago alleged one of the North’s patrol boats violated its sea border in the same area. The boat turned back without incident after a 50-minute standoff with the South’s naval ships, the South Korean military said.

The disputed waters — where deadly clashes occurred in 1999 and 2002 — are a potential flash point for the rivals. Many fear a minor dispute could quickly escalate into a major confrontation, especially with tensions soaring after the North’s May 25 nuclear blast and recent missile tests.

Earlier Saturday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak delivered a stern warning to the North in a nationally televised Memorial Day speech honoring the country’s war dead at Seoul’s National Cemetery.

“I would like to make it clear that there will be no compromise against things that threaten our people and security,” Lee said.

Lee’s words echoed those of U.S. officials, who have also said the North’s former tactics of using military threats to win much-needed food and energy aid would no longer work. Washington is considering punishing North Korea with its own financial sanctions, apart from whatever the U.N. might decide to adopt.

At the U.N., lengthy closed-door negotiations about sanctions appeared to be close to an end. The measure was being worked out by five veto-wielding Security Council nations — the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France — along with Japan and South Korea.

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Hundreds Dead, 500K Homeless In Asia

May 31, 2009 By

homeless-in_southeast-asiaHundreds of thousands of people flooded out of their homes by deadly Cyclone Aila crowded government shelters in eastern India and Bangladesh on Friday, and officials said the risk of disease outbreaks was growing. The death toll from Monday’s cyclone rose to 264 people in the two countries.

In India, the cyclone left 500,000 homeless, said B.C. Patra, a senior official in worst-affected West Bengal state’s Emergency Relief Department. More than 130,000 are crowded in government-run camps, and relief officials are using aircraft and boats to deliver food, water and medicine to others sheltering in schools, office buildings or friends’ homes, he said.

Bangladesh’s Food and Disaster Management Ministry has stopped announcing the number of displaced people, but on Friday said several thousand people were still in shelters. The ministry put the death toll at 147 in Bangladesh, though media reports said at least 178 people have died. Most drowned or were washed away when storm surges hit coastal areas. The official death toll in India stood at 117, Patra said.

Medical teams fear an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and typhoid from a lack of clean drinking water. Many village wells have been submerged by salty water, making them unfit for drinking, officials said. The storm also caused devastation in the Sundarbans, a tangle of mangrove forests that is home to one of the world’s largest tiger populations. Conservationists have expressed concern over the tigers’ fate, though the extent of damage to their habitat remains unclear. It is believed that about 250 tigers live on the Indian side of the Sundarbans and another 250 live on the Bangladeshi side.

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