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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Top Iranian officials told Khamenei to allow US nuke talks or risk fall of regime – NYT
2025-04-12
[IsraelTimes] In rare coordinated effort, officials said to have warned Iran’s supreme leader that military threats from US and Israel are real, and country faces massive unrest if it goes to war

In a rare intervention, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
 was urged by his brass hats to allow negotiations with the United States on the regime’s nuclear program or risk the fall of the Islamic Theocratic Republic, The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
 reported Friday.

The US and Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
are set to meet in Oman on Saturday for talks over Tehran’s rogue nuclear program.

According to The New York Times report, which cited two senior Iranian officials who are familiar with the details, Khamenei held a meeting last month attended by heads of the judiciary and parliament. Those officials, in what the sources described as an unusual, coordinated effort, pressured Khamenei into accepting talks with Washington, even direct ones.

They told Khamenei that the threat of military action by the US and Israel against its nuclear sites was serious.

"If Iran refused talks or if the negotiations failed, the officials told Mr. Khamenei, military strikes on Iran’s two main nuclear sites, Natanz and Fordow, would be inevitable," the sources said, as reported by the Times.

The country, already in economic shambles, would be forced to respond, but then would also likely be plunged into domestic unrest if it were to go to war, they said.

The combination of such events would amount to an existential threat to the Islamic Theocratic Republic, the officials reportedly told Khamenei.

The sources said that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, an ex-Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps chief and current conservative head of Parliament, told Khamenei that a war combined with a domestic economic implosion could quickly get out of control.

They also quoted President Masoud Pezeshkian as telling Khamenei that managing the country through its current crises was not tenable. The report points to power cuts that threaten to shutter factories and water shortages in the central city of Yazd, which saw schools and government offices closed this week.

Iran previously rejected talks but has since relented amid US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
’s threats.

Hossein Mousavian, a former diplomat who served on Iran’s nuclear negotiating team on a 2015 deal and is now a visiting fellow at Princeton University, told The New York Times that the change illustrated that preserving the regime was Khamenei’s main priority.
Hossein Mousavian, a former diplomat who served on Iran’s nuclear negotiating team on a 2015 deal and is now a visiting fellow at Princeton University?
Signing him on was a real triumph, donchaknow. Their NearEast history and international relations students will be getting the story straight from the horse’s mouth. Wasn’t it Yale who had a former Talib minister matriculate with a full scholarship, despite being illiterate in both Pashto and English? Such an opportunity for his fellow students, wherever he was!
"Mr. Khamenei’s turnaround demonstrates his long-held core principle that ’preserving the regime is the most necessary of the necessities,’" Mousavian said.

While Khamenei relented and agreed to talks, he also imposed his own conditions, the report said.

Citing three Iranian officials, the NYT said that Khamenei agreed to discuss strict monitoring for the nuclear program and a significant reduction of the enrichment of uranium. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
 he has said that Iran’s missile program is off limits, regarding it as being part of Iran’s defenses. The sources said that was a "deal breaker."

However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
 the report also said that Iran was "open to discussing its regional policies" and support for its terror proxies like Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
, Hezbollah and the Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
More from the Times of Israel:
Then, there are the expectations of the two sides. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi maintains the negotiations will begin as indirect talks, likely with Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi passing messages between Tehran and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. Trump has maintained the talks will be direct. While not a major roadblock, it signals the challenge the negotiations face — particularly after years of indirect talks during the Biden administration went nowhere.

And while the US side can offer sanctions relief for Iran’s beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be willing to concede. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. Today, Tehran’s stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it so chooses, and it has some material enriched up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Judging from negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at least 20%.

One thing it won’t do is give up its program entirely. That makes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal of a so-called Libyan solution — “you go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution” — unworkable. Iran routinely threatens Israel with destruction and is the main backer of several proxy terror groups attacking Israel, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Iranians, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have held up what ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust the United States.

Already, a top adviser for Khamenei, Ali Shamkhani, has warned what could happen if the US continues to threaten Tehran, including Iran expelling inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and ending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

“The transfer of enriched material to a secure location could also be considered,” he added, opening the door again to Iran having secret, undeclared nuclear sites as it did when the crisis over its program began over 20 years ago.

But Majid Takht-e Ravanch, a deputy Iranian foreign minister, offered a more positive note on Friday.

“If the American side refrains from raising unrelated issues and demands — and abandons threats and intimidation — there is a good opportunity to reach an agreement,” Takht-e Ravanch said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Fake DHS Agents - More details
2022-04-16
Iranian link and the shocking ineptitude of the Secret Service. It took the US Postal Service to reveal the phony DHS agents.
[TabletMagazine] Was the Infiltration of the Secret Service Part of an Iranian Plot to Kill John Bolton? Iran’s attempts to avenge the killing of Qassem Soleimani are another inconvenient truth for the Biden administration’s nuclear negotiators

Recently released court filings and press reports suggest that the two men apprehended for impersonating federal agents last week in Washington, D.C., might have been part of an Iranian assassination team whose mission was to kill former high-ranking U.S. officials. Yet even as the Biden administration became aware of a possible Iranian plot to kill Americans on American soil—an act of war—White House aides continued to negotiate the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal while seeking to accommodate the clerical regime’s thirst for revenge against former Trump administration officials: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook, and National Security Advisor John Bolton.

According to media reports, the two men, Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali, are U.S. citizens. The latter told witnesses he had connections to Pakistani intelligence, and early reports from The New York Times, NBC, Associated Press, and other news sources seemed to make a point of not mentioning any possible link to Iran, despite at least one of the men having visas to visit that country.

Unsurprisingly, both men are now being actively investigated for possible ties to Iranian spy services, according to CBS News. Ali reportedly visited Iran twice in recent years.

Clearly, the two men enjoyed the financial and logistical support of a well-funded organization that supplied them with arms, electronic devices, and cash, which they used to infiltrate and compromise U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The nature of Taherzadeh and Ali’s activities in Washington, D.C., is certainly suggestive of an intention to infiltrate the U.S. Secret Service. Starting in February 2020, according to the affadavit filed in support of the arrest warrants, they worked out of a building in the southeast quadrant of Washington, D.C., in the fashionable Navy Yard district that is home to federal agents, congressional aides, and other government employees. Falsely representing themselves as agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the two men provided Secret Service agents—including agents connected to President Joe Biden’s security detail—as well as a DHS employee with rent-free apartments each worth more than $40,000 per year. According to the April 5th arrest warrant, they provided Secret Service agents with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat-screen television, a generator, and what they said were “official government vehicles.” They also proposed buying an assault rifle for a Secret Service agent assigned to First Lady Jill Biden.

It seems odd that these actions barely raised the suspicions of the numerous federal agents living in the building. Taherzadeh told one DHS employee in the building that he had a list of all of the federal agents in the apartment complex, along with codes to the elevators that gave him access to every floor, and surveillance footage from around the building. After the DHS employee tried to verify that the two men worked for the agency by searching internal DHS databases, Taherzadeh said that his name was redacted due to his undercover status. But as the DHS employee might have known, had Taherzadeh really been working undercover, it’s unlikely he would’ve identified himself as an undercover agent—or shown building residents his tactical gear, surveillance equipment, and a high-powered telescope, as well as a handgun he claimed had been issued by a U.S. agency. He also told neighbors he and Ali could access data from the cell phones of everyone who lived in the building.

Taherzadeh and Ali’s stunning imposture was finally revealed by a U.S. Postal Service inspector who was investigating an attack on a postal carrier in the Navy Yard building and was told by residents that the two men might have witnessed the assault. The inspector interviewed Taherzadeh and Ali, who identified themselves as federal agents who had been deputized by the city government of Washington, D.C., as “special police.” The inspector also learned that the two men had given gifts to Secret Service agents. He then passed the information on to the FBI, which arrested the two men.

How is it possible that in a building full of federal law enforcement agents, it took a postal service inspector to uncover the two men? After all, press reports have suggested for months that the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are aware of active foreign plots against U.S. officials. In particular, the Iranians are intent on taking revenge for the targeted assassination of Qassem Soleiman, the onetime chief of the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ external operations unit, who was second in command only to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The Iranians have repeatedly threatened the three former Trump officials—Pompeo, Hook, and Bolton—by name in their own media. In a recent documentary, a former Iranian official, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, boasted that the Iranian regime’s threats to murder Hook have terrorized Hook’s family. “I went to America, and an American told me that Brian Hook’s wife can’t sleep. She cries and trembles, she told Brian, ‘They’ll kill you,’ since Hook was a partner in the death of Haj Qassem [Soleimani]. That’s how much they were trembling,” said Moussavian. Bizarrely, Moussavian holds a teaching post at Princeton University, which is apparently okay with faculty who use the university’s name and platform to amplify and celebrate murder threats by foreign governments against U.S. diplomats.

Because Pompeo and Hook are former State Department employees, their security is provided by the Diplomatic Security Service. Bolton worked in the White House, so his protective detail is provided by the Secret Service—the target of the penetration effort by Taherzadeh and Ali.

Early last month, the Washington Examiner reported that U.S. intelligence services had become aware that “at least two Iranians belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ covert-action Quds Force have been plotting to assassinate” Bolton, and a full-time Secret Service protective detail was assigned to him earlier this year or late in 2021. When emailed by Tablet, Bolton declined to comment on the arrests of Ali and Taherzadeh.

This is not the first time the Iranians have plotted to kill their enemies in the U.S. capital. In September 2011, U.S. law enforcement arrested Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-born naturalized U.S. citizen who, together with Iran-based Quds Force officers, had plotted to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir at a Washington restaurant and subsequently bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies.

At the time, President Barack Obama said that Iran “will pay a price” for plotting terror attacks that were likely to have killed a huge number of people in the U.S. capital. Instead, the Obama administration legalized Iran’s nuclear weapons program when it agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in July 2015.

The Biden administration is now negotiating to reenter the deal that the Trump administration withdrew from in May 2018. Despite some recent hand-wringing, it seems unlikely that Iran’s efforts to kill Americans will derail Biden’s negotiators. The Obama team eagerly embraced the Iranian nuclear program while ignoring Tehran’s terror plots and will almost certainly do so again under Biden. Robert Malley, the key negotiator for Obama’s Middle East team, now serves as Biden’s Iran envoy.

Apparently, Malley’s negotiating team tried to talk Iran out of killing Americans who served in government—but failed. According to Malley’s former deputy at the International Crisis Group, Ali Vaez, “It is politically impossible for the Iranians to publicly close the file on taking revenge for Soleimani. That proposal has been rejected by the Iranians. Iran has come up with a counterproposal that the US is now considering.”

In other words, rather than walking away from the deal with a terror state that is actively trying to murder former U.S. officials, the Biden administration has been trying to arrive at a formula that licenses Iranian vengeance against its predecessors in government. As depraved as that may sound to ordinary Americans, it is the reality that U.S. negotiators have brought about in their decade-long attempt to give international legitimacy, and U.S. protection, to Iran’s nuclear program.
Related:
Arian Taherzadeh: 2022-04-14 Staggering Incompetence Or Something Worse - Ali And Taherzadeh Released
Arian Taherzadeh: 2022-04-10 Secret Service agents in Biden detail reportedly part of bribery scheme
Arian Taherzadeh: 2022-04-09 Stash of assault rifles, body armor, passports with multiple visas, and sham uniforms found in penthouse of 'fake' Homeland agents
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Former Iran negotiator says nuclear deal possible
2012-04-01
UNITED NATIONS: An end to a nearly decade-long nuclear standoff between Iran and major world powers will be possible if the United States and its European allies recognize Tehran’s right to enrich uranium, a former Iranian negotiator said in an editorial.
Um, no...
“Talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1), scheduled for next month, provide the best opportunity to break the nine-year deadlock over Iran’s nuclear program,” Hossein Mousavian, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator, wrote in an editorial in the Boston Globe.

Mousavian, now a visiting scholar at Princeton University in New Jersey,
Nice work if you can get it...
had been seen as a moderate when in the Iranian government. Although he is not currently a policymaker, such public presentations of Iranian thinking is rare.
But he's not part of the government and he's safe at the People's Enclave of Princeton, so it's not really 'Iranian thinking', but rather what the reporter wishes 'Iranian thinking' should be when viewed in the proper progressive (rose-colored) lens...
Iran has rejected Security Council demands that it halt enrichment and other sensitive nuclear work, saying it has a sovereign right to atomic energy. This has led to four rounds of increasingly stringent UN Security Council sanctions, mostly focusing on its nuclear and missile industries, but also targeting some financial institutions, a few subsidiaries of its major shipping firm, and companies linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

For the talks, expected to take place in mid-April, to open the door to a resolution of the standoff with Iran, Mousavian said the United States and its European allies must make clear that war and coercion are not the only options.
Nothing else seems to have worked. 'Engagement' has been a joke, and sanctions don't seem to be convincing the Mad Mullahs™ to change their minds much.
They should seek enhanced engagement with Tehran, as US President Barack Obama has repeatedly called for.

“This could work - since 2003, Iran has been looking for a viable and durable solution to the diplomatic standoff,” wrote Mousavian.
Completely on the terms of the Mad Mullahs™, of course...
Mousavian was Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005 before conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took over from his reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami. According to Western envoys familiar with Mousavian, he appeared at the time to be genuinely interested in reaching a deal with the West.
Which is why the following occurred...
After he was removed from the nuclear negotiating team, Mousavian was arrested and briefly jailed in 2007 on accusations of espionage. He was acquitted of that charge, which could have carried the death penalty, but was found guilty of “propaganda against the system.”

Analysts and diplomats said the charges against Mousavian were really a reflection of an internal Iranian dispute over how to handle Iran’s atomic dispute with the West. Some Iranians favor the moderate line adopted by Mousavian while the ones in charge others have backed Ahmadinejad’s more confrontational approach.

Mousavian writes that if a deal that is acceptable to both parties is to be reached, the two sides’ “bottom lines” should be identified.

“For Iran, this is the recognition of its legitimate right to create a nuclear program - including enrichment - and a backing off by the P5+1 from its zero-enrichment position.”

“For the P5+1, it is an absolute prohibition on Iran from creating a nuclear bomb, and having Iran clear up ambiguities in its nuclear program to the satisfaction of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Mousavian writes.
Eyewash. The mullahs want the bomb, and they believe the best way to get it is to enrich and at the same time to deceive us as to their intentions. The latter is Mousavian's job, and he's working hard for a living...
The West also needs to abandon calls for regime change and accept that “crippling sanctions, covert actions, and military strikes might slow down Iran’s nuclear program but will not stop it.”
Yup, nothing works, so we might as well fold and start the evacuation of Tel Aviv...
“In fact, it is too late to demand that Iran suspend enrichment activities,” Mousavian writes. “It mastered enrichment technology and reached break-out capability in 2002 and continues to steadily improve its uranium-enrichment capabilities.”
We were assured by a National Intelligence Estimate in 2007 that such things had not occurred. Wonder what happened to the writers of that report?
The so-called “break-out” capability refers to the ability of a country to construct a nuclear weapon.

A US think tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS),
Who have all the correct funding sources...
has said that capping Iranian uranium enrichment at 5 percent purity level compared with the 90 percent needed for a bomb could form part of an interim deal that would give time for more substantial negotiations. This and other priority measures would “limit Iran’s capability to break out quickly,” ISIS said in a report.

Among the things the West should offer to Iran is a package that includes recognition of its nuclear rights, ending sanctions, and “normalization of Iran’s nuclear file.” In return, Iran should offer the IAEA full transparency and permit the most intrusive inspections possible.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ex-Iran Nuke Negotiator Acquitted of Espionage
2007-12-03
A judiciary spokesperson was telling reporters that Hossein Mousavian "… had been acquitted of spying and keeping financial documents, but was convicted of engaging in propaganda against the regime. Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters, "There were three charges against Mousavian: Spying, keeping classified documents and propagating against the state. He was found not guilty of the first two but found guilty of engaging in propaganda against the state.."

Mousavian received a suspended sentence for the third charge against him. However, Jamshidi noted, "He may face a criminal sentence if the prosecutor objects to the court's decision." Jamshidi added, "When a case reaches this stage, it must be approved by the prosecutor, who has the right to object. If he is in agreement [with the court's decision], it is over; if not, the case is sent back to court with the prosecutor's objections."

Exactly one hour into the announcement of Mousavian's acquittal, hardliner Fars News Agency, affiliated with the security and intelligence establishment in Iran, quoted an "informed judiciary official" as saying, "the prosecutor can object to the judge's handling of this case."

The involvement of Ahmadinejad and his administration in this case has angered many prominent figures in the conservative faction. In the latest reaction, Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, senior advisor to the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, announced that "accusations brought against Mousavian are not true."

Ahmadinejad and other government officials have referred to Mousavian as "A treacherous element" and "enemy agent" on several occasions. Last week, Ahmadinejad told reporters, "After we arrested an individual on spying charges, they put extreme pressures on the judge to acquit the spy. But I announce right here that the Iranian people will now allow individuals and groups to use their political and economic influence to save criminals from justice."

Given such remarks, analysts believe that Mousavian's acquittal is an embarrassing defeat for Ahmadinejad’s administration.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Announces Second Long-Range Missile
2007-11-27
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced Tuesday that his nation's military has built a second missile capable of reaching Israel. "The Ashoura, with the range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) is among the accomplishments of the Defense Ministry," Najjar told a group of Islamic religious militiamen holding maneuvers this week.

Najjar also announced delivery of a new domestically-produced submarine to the Iranian navy expected on Wednesday, according to the Fars News Agency.

The Iranian defense minister did not explain how the Ashoura missile differs from the Shabab-3, the existing Iranian long-range missile.

Former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian was cleared in an Islamic Republic courtroom Tuesday on charges of spying. Mousavian was charged earlier this month of passing classified information to the British Embassy and other foreign officials. The former nuclear negotiator was convicted of a lesser charge "acting against the Islamic government," said an Iranian judiciary spokesman.
He'll still be killed, of course.
Mousavian was accused by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of being a "traitor" and a "spy."

Syrian officials found themselves facing the outrage of the Iranian ambassador to Syria as well as Hamas politburo head and chief terrorist Khaled Mashaal Tuesday at the country's decision to attend the Annapolis summit, according to IDF Radio. The Iranian-backed Hizbullah terrorist organization in Lebanon was equally miffed by the decision, according to the report.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem met in Damascus with Mashaal and Mohammad-Hassan Akhtari in an attempt to justify Syria's participation in the conference. Muallem allegedly explained that Syria's top priority was finding a way to retrieve the Golan Heights, which was liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran charges former nuclear negotiator as a "spy for Britain"
2007-11-15
Iran has embroiled Britain in an escalating domestic row over the country's nuclear policy by charging Tehran's former senior nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, with passing classified information to the British Embassy. “He has been informed of the charges that he has given the British Embassy information contrary to the security of the country,” Gholam Hossein Ejehi, Iran's hardline Intelligence Minister, was quoted as saying by the country's official news agency. It did not say when Mr Mousavian would be put on trial.
Your current negotiator is an American spy. Ooops, shouldn't have told you that. My bad.
By involving the British Embassy in the row, supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the firebrand President, appear to be attempting to embarrass Mr Mousavian's supporters.

He was Iran's top nuclear negotiator under Iran's reformist former President, Mohammad Khatami, and spent ten days in jail in May on unspecified charges of espionage before being released on bail. As former nuclear negotiator, Mr Mousavian regularly met European envoys in Tehran from October 2003 in talks to resolve the nuclear dispute.

“It was normal diplomatic activity in that we sought to find out what the Iranian position was and he conveyed the Iranian position,” one European envoy told The Times. “Whether they are simply claiming that in doing their government duty people like Mousavian were traitors or whether they are claiming that over and above their government duty Mousavian passed sensitive information we don't know,” the envoy added. “They could be criminalising normal diplomatic behaviour or they could be accusing him of something much more precise.”

Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University in New York, said he really did not think that Mousavian was a spy. "He was the appointed representative - he was supposed to meet with representatives: that was what he was all about.” Professor Sick told The Times: “I see this all in the context of domestic politics. In my view, Ahmadinejad is making a real play for power.” He said that Mr Ahmadinejad had come back from his recent trip to New York feeling triumphant after all the publicity he received there. “He came back feeling now or never he’s going to reassert himself.”

Mr Mousavian is an ally of Hashemi Rafsanjani, another powerful former President who, with Mr Khatami, accused the current president of endangering the Islamic Republic with his confrontational rhetoric on the nuclear issue.

Without naming either of his predecessors, Mr Ahmadinejad lashed out at them indirectly on Monday by branding domestic critics of his nuclear policies as “traitors” working for the West. His outburst highlighted a growing rift within the upper echelons of the Iranian regime.

It came on the same day that Mr Rafsanjani, a leading rival of Mr. Ahmadinejad, made a public speech in which he warned of a “serious danger” to Iran from the US. Significantly, he was accompanied by Mr. Mousavian, who was making his first public appearance since May.

The charges against Mr Mousavian will be seen as a challenge to Mr Rafsanjani, who is a pragmatic conservative who believes in accommodation with the West. “From the viewpoint of the Intelligence Ministry, he [Mousavian] is a criminal ... this is definite and provable. But the decision [on the case] rests with the judge,” Mr Ejehi said. He made clear Mr Mousavian had powerful allies, saying: “Influential persons have called the judge and tried to get him acquitted.”

Professor Sick sees the accusations against Mr Mousavian as an attempt by the President to undermine Mr Rafsanjani. Similarly, the abrupt removal of Ali Larijani as chief nuclear negotiator in September was seen as an attempt by the president to seize more control of the nuclear file from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

Because many Iranians are steeped in the history of British imperial meddling in Iran in the 19th and 20th centuries, Britain is often a convenient whipping boy for Iranian hardliners who invariably portray it as “perfidious Albion”.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ex-Nuclear Official Accused in Iran
2007-11-14
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's former senior nuclear negotiator has been charged with passing classified information to foreigners, including the British Embassy, the Iranian intelligence minister said Wednesday, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Hossein Mousavian, the top negotiator under reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, was briefly detained in May, again on suspicion of espionage, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

"He has been informed of the charges that he has given the British Embassy information contrary to the security of the country," IRNA quoted Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi as saying.

There was no word on when his trial would begin.

"From the viewpoint of the Intelligence Ministry, he is a criminal. ... This is definite and provable. But the decision (on the case) rests with the judge," Ejehi said, according to Fars.

On Monday, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted critics of his nuclear policies as alluring she-goat temptresses "traitors" and accused them of spying for Iran's enemies, using his strongest rhetoric yet against domestic opponents and raising concerns of a possible crackdown.

But Ejehi named Mousavian directly, saying "influential persons have called the judge and tried to get him (Mousavian) acquitted."

Ahmadinejad has moved to exert greater control over the nuclear issue, replacing Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, with a close loyalist, Saeed Jalili—a step that angered even some conservative politicians.

The president has long faced domestic criticism that he was failing to improve the worsening economy, and has needlessly worsened the nuclear standoff with the West with his inflammatory speeches.

Mousavian's successor, Hasan Rowhani, delivered an unusually sharp rebuke to Ahmadinejad last month, saying he was making more enemies for Iran with his policies.

Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment has been the main trigger for existing U.N. Strongly-worded letters sanctions and the threat of new ones.

Iran, which sez it has a Legitimate Right™ to enrich to generate power, has repeatedly said it will not mothball its program.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran: Mousavian makes bail
2007-05-10
An Iranian court on Wednesday released on bail a former nuclear negotiator who reportedly faces espionage charges, state television said. Hossein Mousavian was part of the nuclear negotiating team under the reformist predecessor of Iran's current hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - and he is seen as close to one of Ahmadinejad's top rivals, powerful cleric-politican Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Mousavian was arrested April 30, but authorities have not announced charges against him. An unofficial news agency said the charges were likely related to espionage but gave no details. Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said Wednesday that Mousavian's detention "was not necessarily related to the nuclear issue." But he did not elaborate.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran arrests former nuclear negotiator
2007-05-03
Iranian authorities arrested a former nuclear negotiator "for security reasons", the official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday. Hossein Mousavian, considered a moderate conservative by analysts, was a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team with the European Union and head of the foreign policy committee on the Supreme National Security Council. Like most other members of the team, he was replaced by more hardline officials when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.

"Mousavian has been arrested for security reasons," IRNA quoted an "unofficial source" as saying. "Mousavian was arrested on Monday in his house in Tehran." The ILNA news agency earlier said the reason for his arrest and charges against him had not been announced. Mousavian's office declined to comment.

During the 2005 presidential race, Ahmadinejad said Iran's nuclear negotiators had been too timid, although after his election win Iran continued talks with the EU to find a diplomatic solution to its nuclear dispute.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tehran accuses IAEA of leaking secrets
2005-03-03
A senior Iranian security official on Thursday accused the International Atomic Energy Authority of lying and leaking information from inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities. Speaking on Iranian television, the normally mild Hossein Mousavian, foreign policy head of the Supreme National Security Council, also warned Britain, France and Germany that Iran would leave talks with them about its nuclear programme unless there was "tangible progress".
"Bow down and kiss our feet, infidels!"
Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA director general, told the agency's board this week that Iran should go out of its way to be transparent about its nuclear programme, which Tehran says is peaceful, to overcome suspicions arising from the fact that it had been kept secret for almost two decades.
Jackie Sanders, chief US delegate, said Tehran was "cynically" pursuing nuclear weapons and called for United Nations security council referral. President George W Bush was on Thursday talking with his national security team about whether to shift policy and to join Europe in offering inducements to Iran to end uranium enrichment. But his warning in Europe last month that all options were open for dealing with Tehran has fed speculation that the US or Israel would attack Iran's nuclear sites.
Mr Mousavian on Thursday accused the IAEA of leaking information to the media from inspections during the past year: "The basic shortcoming of the IAEA is that it has not been able to keep Iran's secrets." On Wednesday, Sirus Naseri, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said its worries about "confidentiality of information" were "more intense in view of potential threats of military strikes against facilities visited by [the agency]".
You can inspect but you can't tell anybody
Mr Mousavian's outburst on Thursday centred on a statement this week by Pierre Goldschmidt, IAEA deputy director general. Mr Goldschmidt said Iran allowed the IAEA partial access to a military site but had denied a request for another visit. Mr Mousavian said Iran had agreed to one inspection of Parchin, an explosives-testing centre south-east of Tehran, even though this was "not within the country's duties" under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. "Iran agreed to allow inspection of one place chosen by the IAEA," he said. "When Mr Goldschmidt announced they had wanted to do more inspections and Iran refused, this was a sheer lie."
European incentives for Iran to moderate its nuclear activities such as the sale of parts for civilian aircraft and talks about joining the World Trade Organisation have publicly received short shrift in Tehran.
"The people would never want to join the global trade body at the cost of giving up our nuclear programme," said an editorial on Thursday in the moderate Iran Daily. Attacks on the IAEA have hitherto come from hardliners rather than the pragmatic conservatives handling nuclear negotiations.
Looks like Bush's policy of letting the Europeans take the lead in this is going as planned.
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Britain
Blair moves towards Bush on Iran
2005-02-10
TONY Blair yesterday moved towards the hawkish United States position on Iran, jangling nerves among Labour MPs and peace campaigners fearful of fresh conflict in the Middle East. Appearing before a committee of senior MPs in London, the Prime Minister said there was "no doubt" that the Iranian government backed international terrorism and warned the regime in Tehran not to stand in the way of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Anti-war activists and some European diplomats fear that the US, following the re-election of George Bush as president, is gearing up for a confrontation with Iran over its embryonic nuclear programme. Reports earlier this year suggested US special forces had already been in Iran to identify possible targets for US or Israeli air strikes.

Although Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said last week in London that an attack on Iran was "not on the agenda", there is no doubt that Washington is increasingly focusing its attentions on the theocratic government in Tehran. Mr Bush last month pledged in his inauguration speech to spread the "fire of freedom" around the world, seen by many as a warning to the Iranian hard-liners to permit more political freedoms and end human-rights abuses. Last week, the US president said Iran was "the world's primary state sponsor of terror", an assessment Mr Blair enthusiastically supported yesterday. "It certainly does sponsor terrorism, there's no doubt about that at all," the Prime Minister said.

The US State Department says elements in the Iranian regime provide military and financial support to groups such as Hezbollah that carry out attacks against Israeli interests. Mr Blair suggested that support must end. He said: "I hope very much that if we can make progress in the Middle East, Iran realises it's got an obligation to help that, not hinder it." Raising Iran's profile in the context of international terrorism is a broadening of the case against Tehran. In recent years, European diplomacy has concentrated on persuading Iran to give up any attempt to create weapons-grade uranium.

As Mr Blair spoke, Iranian diplomats indicated their patience was running out with lengthy but so-far fruitless talks with Britain, France and Germany. Talks between the two sides resumed in Geneva yesterday and began with a warning from Hossein Mousavian, the senior Iranian negotiator. "If we see tangible, objective progress, we will continue negotiations," he said. "If we think the Europeans are killing time, we will definitely [change our position]." Mr Blair insisted that Iran's possible military ambitions must be dealt with: "I don't think it's disputed that there is an issue to do with Iran and nuclear weapons capability."

Meanwhile, Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights worker who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, became the latest campaigner to warn against any armed strike against the regime in Tehran. "For the human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause," Ms Ebadi, the founder of the Centre for Defence of Human Rights in Tehran, wrote in the New York Times yesterday.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tehran rejects Bush's call for freedom of Iranian people
2005-02-04
Iran on Thursday rejected US President George W Bush's call for freedom directed at the Iranian people as misguided and ignorant of the Islamic republic's history.
"They don't need no damn' freedom. They got turbans!"
"Mr Bush has forgotten that the great Iranian people, through the Islamic revolution 26 years ago, put an end to the dominant influence and presence of the United States in Iran," said foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. The spokesman, quoted by the state news agency IRNA, said the US president was "closing his eyes to the realities of the Islamic republic with its deep-rooted freedom and democracy".
"We just define 'freedom' and 'democracy' differently. Very differently."
Bush's comments had "nothing to do with Iran's vibrant society" and only served "to further discredit the American government".
"Us Medes and Persians, on the other hand, are just as credited as we can be!"
The president, in his State of the Union address on Wednesday, charged that Iran "remains the world's primary state sponsor of terror — pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve". "To the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you," he said.
That's a fairly bald statement, isn't it, Hamid? Think on the implications..."
Europe failing to deliver: Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official has expressed frustration that European states have not delivered on incentives promised last year in return for Tehran's pledge to suspend nuclear enrichment. "The talks so far do not indicate serious determination of Europeans to achieve any results quickly," Hossein Mousavian, one of Iran's chief nuclear negotiators, told Thursday's Financial Times.
"It's all their fault, of course..."
Iran, which denies US accusations that it is seeking nuclear weapons, has agreed to freeze potentially arms-related uranium enrichment activities while the talks continue but has shown impatience with the dialogue launched late last year. In his State of the Union address on Wednesday, US President George W Bush repeated his charge that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and called Iran the "world's primary state sponsor of terror".
I dunno. It's kind of a tossup between Iran and Soddy Arabia...
Germany, France and Britain, acting for the Eurpean Union, hope to persuade Tehran to permanently scrap processes such as uranium enrichment - a possible path to the atomic bomb - in return for political and economic incentives. "We have not yet seen considerable progress in our cooperation and no incentives in political, security, technological, economic and nuclear fields," said Mousavian. "Now it is time to deliver something to Iranian public opinion and the nation."
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