Top Stories
WSJ: "U.S. lawmakers approved new legislation against
Iran Thursday that aims to significantly increase the penalties on
international firms doing business with Iranian banks, energy firms and the
businesses of Tehran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps." http://bit.ly/bHCgzv
Bloomberg: "The June 27 departure of an Iranian ship
carrying aid to the Gaza Strip has been canceled as a result of Israel's vow to
prevent vessels from Iran and Lebanon from reaching the Palestinian enclave, an
Iranian official said." http://bit.ly/d55Le8
Reuters: "Artists like Monet, Picasso and Warhol were
considered revolutionary in their day, but their works were not much
appreciated by the leaders of Iran's Islamic revolution and many were kept out
of view for decades. Now, one of the
greatest collections of contemporary Western art -- put together under a
Western-leaning monarchy in pre-revolutionary Iran -- is open to the public,
with some works on display for the first time in more than 30 years." http://bit.ly/cpqOPj
Nuclear Program
AP: "Congress has overwhelmingly approved tough new
sanctions against Iran, sending a message to the Tehran government that its
suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability will not come without an
economic price." http://bit.ly/9zhsZa
VOA: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran
will announce its conditions next week for talks with world powers on the
country's controversial nuclear program. The president commented Thursday without elaborating on what those
conditions might be." http://bit.ly/brqYhI
Culture
LAT: "'Women Without Men,' directed by Iranian-born
artist Shirin Neshat (who also co-scripted with Shoja Azari, inspired by the
novel by Shahrnush Parsipur), is a hypnotic look at four very different women
in 1953 Iran whose lives intersect against the CIA-led, British-backed coup
that restored the Shah to power. The
suicide of Munis (Shabnam Tolouei), a politically aware 30-year-old desperate
to escape her domineering brother, sets the often-dreamlike story into motion."
http://bit.ly/bMKf51
Opinion
Elliot Hen-Tov and Bernard Haykel in NYT: "Since Israel's
deadly raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara last month, it's been assumed that
Iran would be the major beneficiary of the wave of global anti-Israeli
sentiment. But things seem to be playing out much differently: Iran
paradoxically stands to lose much influence as Turkey assumes a surprising new
role as the modern, democratic and internationally respected nation willing to
take on Israel and oppose America." http://nyti.ms/cN2QWA
Leon Wieseltier in WP: "In a false and heartless June 21
op-ed column, 'The fantasy of an Iranian revolution,' Fareed Zakaria
demonstrated -- again -- that he is the consummate spokesman for the
shibboleths of the White House and for the smooth new worldliness, the
at-the-highest-levels impatience with democracy and human rights as central
objectives of our foreign policy, that now characterize advanced liberal
thinking about America's role in the world." http://bit.ly/9XznWA
Melik Kaylan in Forbes: "Imagine how regime change in
Iran would utterly transform the world. So many knotty, insuperable obstacles
all overcome in one stroke. Let us consider the benefits. They are so glaring
that you can be sure President Obama and his advisors have chewed on them at
some length." http://bit.ly/di2uRT
Robert Tait in Radio Farda: "He has been accused of weak,
indecisive leadership of Iran's political opposition and of harboring a naive
sentimental loyalty to a political system that has brutally suppressed his
followers. But now supporters of Mir
Hossein Musavi believe he may at last have crossed the Rubicon from loyal but
critical insider to outright opponent of the Islamic regime after a year of
hesitancy, ambiguity, and equivocation." http://bit.ly/aP3HQ1
Mohamad Bazzi in Foreign Affairs: "For many Shiite
Muslims, whose religion was born of rebellion, last year's popular uprising in
Iran was just the latest in a centuries-long struggle against injustice and
tyranny. Now, as the clerical regime consolidates its grip on power a year
after the tainted reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran remains
torn by what seems to be a hopeless conflict between Islam and democracy." http://bit.ly/b3sjWE
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