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WSJ: "Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad arrived to cheers from crowds of adoring Lebanese Shiites in this
Arab nation for his first state visit, a trip seen as a move to bolster
Tehran's ally, Hezbollah. The trip comes amid growing political tension with
the group's pro-Western partners in a delicate coalition government and has put
the region on a tense footing. Mr. Ahmadinejad is expected to visit southern
Lebanon later this week, perhaps venturing as far as the tense border with
Israel. That frontier was the site of a deadly border clash between Israeli and
Lebanese forces as recently as August. That incident sharply raised regional
tensions and heightened worry in the U.S. that Lebanon's independent-and
partially U.S.-funded-military is being influenced by Hezbollah, the Shiite
political and militant group supported by Iran and Syria." http://bit.ly/aBdVdN
AP: "Iran on Wednesday said 18
members of the powerful Revolutionary Guard were killed in an explosion that
struck the force's base in the country's west a day earlier. The state IRNA
news agency said 14 other Guard troops were wounded in Tuesday's blast in the
city of Khoramabad, some 300 miles (500 kilometers) southwest of the capital,
Tehran. The injured were taken to hospitals in Khoramabad. The report said the
blast was caused by a fire that had reached the ammunition storage area, but
there was no word on what had ignited the blaze. In their first reports of the
blast late Tuesday, most Iranian media said the explosion was an accident. Although
Khoramabad has not seen violence recently, it is geographically close to
Kurdish-populated areas that have been the scene in recent months of several
attacks by Kurds disgruntled with the central government." http://bit.ly/9FLiQp
AP: "Tehran's
chief prosecutor says authorities have arrested five people on suspicion of
spying for the country's 'enemies' - a common reference in Iran for the United
States and Israel. Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi says the suspects had passed on
information to the enemies, including data about Iran's space program, economy
and defense. The prosecutor, whose comments were carried Wednesday by the state
IRNA news agency, didn't identify those arrested." http://bit.ly/cPCBMx
Nuclear
Program
AFP: "Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad on Wednesday hailed Lebanon's resistance in the face of Israeli 'aggression'
as he began an official visit that will take him to the border of the Jewish
state. Ahmadinejad was showered with rice and rose petals by tens of thousands
of Hezbollah supporters who lined the roads as his convoy made its way from the
airport to the presidential palace. 'We fully support the resistance of the
Lebanese people against the Zionist regime and we want full liberation of occupied
territory in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine,' the hardline leader said at a joint
press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Sleiman." http://yhoo.it/dr12N9
AFP: "European Union Foreign
Affairs chief Catherine Ashton has received no written response from Tehran to
offers to resume talks on its nuclear programme, her spokeswoman said
Wednesday. 'We offered to meet them at different levels, last time in New York
(on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly), and our readiness to meet them
is still there,' Maja Kocijancik told AFP. 'We haven't received anything in
writing in response to our offers in the last weeks,' she added. Tehran this
week blamed Ashton for the stalemate in talks, urging her to be 'more active'
in pursuing the dialogue." http://bit.ly/d12j9f
Human
Rights
NYT: "Germany and Iran faced off
Tuesday over the case of two Germans arrested in Iran over the weekend while
interviewing the son of a woman whose sentence to death by stoning raised an
international uproar. There were indications that the arrests were taking on
political overtones similar to those surrounding the arrest of three Americans
by Iranian border guards more than a year ago. Both Iran and Germany confirmed
Tuesday for the first time that the two were indeed Germans. Leaders here said
the two were journalists, giving no further identification. Chancellor Angela
Merkel called for their release, and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said, 'We
work with full strength at all diplomatic levels' for their freedom." http://nyti.ms/bpD5Cx
AFP: "Acclaimed Iranian director
Abbas Kiarostami has revealed that the political climate in his homeland is
forcing him to work overseas. Speaking on the sidelines of the 15th Pusan
International Film Festival, Kiarostami said the situation saddened him but
that he had to accept it as he wanted to continue making films... 'The
(political) situation inside Iran is not ideal for making a film. Naturally I
would prefer to make a film in my own language but at the moment this is just
not possible.'" http://bit.ly/axEh5P
Domestic Politics
AFP: "Iran's
health minister warned on Tuesday that the Islamic republic could see a 'volcanic
explosion of AIDS' on the back of rising 'immoral behaviour' among its people. 'Seven
percent of those who have AIDS have been infected because of immoral behaviour
and attitudes and because of a rise in such dangerous behaviour. In the future,
we could have a volcanic explosion of AIDS in our country,' Marzieh Vahid
Dastjurdi said at a seminar on AIDS, according to ISNA news agency." http://bit.ly/apNa4G
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Abdullah discussed regional affairs by telephone on
Tuesday amid tensions over Iraqi and Lebanese politics and a Gulf arms buildup,
the official SPA news agency said. The leaders of the two rival powers 'discussed
bilateral relations and reviewed the overall situation in the region' in the
rare call, SPA said. The conversation took place as the two sides appeared to
be at odds over the formation of Iraq's government, stalemated seven months
after parliamentary elections." http://bit.ly/937kF3
Opinion
Reza Khalili in WT: "President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon today marks not only a historic point
for the Islamic regime in Iran but also its victory over Israel and the West in
gaining control of Lebanon. This reinforces for the Iranians that their
philosophy of radicalism and strategy of terrorism have big payoffs. Just a few
years into the Iranian revolution of 1979, supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini ordered the Revolutionary Guards to take the fight to the Americans
and Israelis and expand their operation in Lebanon. I was a member of the
guards then and was told that the Shiite militias of the Amal Movement did not
have the courage and the commitment to Allah to fight the Israelis and that
there was a need for a more aggressive force committed to martyrdom and the
destruction of Israel and America. This was when the guards created Hezbollah
by sending hundreds of their officers into Lebanon along with planes loaded
with arms and explosives." http://bit.ly/9upWgj
Rami Khouri in The Daily Star: "If there is a symbolic seminal moment in the broad
ideological struggle that defines the Middle East these days, it will be this
week's visit to Lebanon by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His visit
already generated significant advance debate in the Lebanese and regional media
before it started, most of which - like so much else related to Lebanon, Iran,
Hizbullah, Israel and the US these days - was divisive, polarized and not
particularly enlightening. This is a moment of intensity and drama, but
probably not one of political innovation or substantive change. If Ahmadinejad,
as planned, goes to south Lebanon and visits Hizbullah-controlled villages near
the Israeli border, we should expect political emotions to go through the roof
in both the pro-Iranian and anti-Iranian camps. This will not be a surprise,
because Ahmadinejad overlooking the northern border of Israel in the company of
his Hizbullah allies is a nightmare for most Israelis and many of their friends
in the West, while for Hizbullah and its allies in the region this would be a
prize-winning moment of defiance to be savored for a long time." http://bit.ly/9TU8iU
Karim Sadjadpour in FP: "For
three decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has bedeviled the United States,
resisting both incentives and disincentives and working all the while to foil
American designs in the Middle East. If 20th-century Russia was to Winston
Churchill a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, for observers of
contemporary Iran, the Islamic Republic often resembles a villain inside a
victim behind a veil. Seeking to understand their mysterious foe, American
analysts most commonly invoke three historical analogies to explain its
character and future trajectory: Red China, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union.
The chosen metaphor pretty much dictates the proposed response, and most
prescriptions for U.S. policy have come down to one of these variations:
attempt to coax the Iranian regime into modernity; forget the diplomatic
niceties and 'pre-emptively' attack it to prevent or delay its acquisition of
nuclear weapons; or contain it in hopes it will change or collapse under the
weight of its internal contradictions." http://bit.ly/cfB9eP
Jonathan Schanzer in The Hill: "Despite
international sanctions designed to derail Iran's nuclear program, the Islamic
Republic legally owns 15 percent of the third largest uranium mine in the
world. How is this possible? Ask the management of Rossing Uranium Limited in
the southern African nation of Namibia. According to the company's most recent
annual report, Iran has owned a sizeable stake in it since the early 1970s. The
United Nations has made it illegal to sell fissile material to the Iranians,
but it somehow allows them to own a major stake in a uranium mine. This is a
loophole that needs to be addressed at Turtle Bay." http://bit.ly/9dV2J8
Bob Feferman in American Thinker: "Wednesday
this week, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, will visit Lebanon and
go to the hottest flash point in the world: the border between Israel and Lebanon.
What makes this border so dangerous? The 40,000 missiles supplied by Iran to
Hezb'allah pointed at every Israeli city make this place the epicenter of
international terror. That puts Israel squarely on the front lines of the war
against Islamic extremism. Let there be no mistake: this is a war between the
forces of liberty and the extremists who want to bring about the downfall
of the West. That puts Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, along with even the moderates
in the Palestinian camp, on the same side together with Europe and the United
States. The forces of liberty also include the millions of brave Iranians who
have risked their lives to protest the actions of their own government." http://bit.ly/9DuS8S
News
Analysis
AP: "Ahmadinejad is making his
first state visit to Lebanon at a time when tensions are mounting between
Hezbollah and Western-backed parties in the government. The growing crisis
could bring down Lebanon's unity government, in which both sides share power in
a tenuous arrangement. The divisions were thrown into sharp relief by Ahmadinejad's
presence. The exuberant welcome in the streets was largely organized by
Hezbollah, who encouraged the mostly Shiite crowd to come out in droves.
Ahmadinejad's trip also includes a provocative excursion to the border with
archenemy Israel on Thursday. But the Iranian leader's splashy arrival only
exacerbates fears among many Lebanese - particularly Sunnis and Christians -
that Hezbollah and Iran are trying to impose their will on the country and
possibly pull Lebanon into a conflict with Israel." http://yhoo.it/ajf2TJ
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