Top Stories
WSJ: "Tensions escalated in Iran on Tuesday as antigovernment protests erupted nationwide following the arrests last week of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and their wives. The demonstration-part of an opposition plan to challenge the regime with weekly rallies-drew tens of thousands of supporters in Tehran for the third time in two weeks, witnesses said. They said this week's rally, which coincided with Mr. Mousavi's birthday, was the largest and most violent yet. The government deployed swaths of security forces, including antiriot police and plainclothes Basij militia, to battle the crowds with tear gas, batons and bullets, according to witnesses. Clashes continued late into the night, with reports from opposition websites that at least 50 people were arrested at one location in Tehran. No report of casualties has yet surfaced from either the government or the opposition." http://t.uani.com/i3xl0P
AFP: "The NATO force in Afghanistan on Monday spelled out the support it believes Iran is providing to insurgents in the violence-wracked country, warning it was keeping a wary eye out. Tehran opposes the presence of thousands of US troops in the region, with American soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which border Iran, an Islamic republic. 'They (Iran) are giving them a limited amount of bullets, technical pieces of IEDs, rockets, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), through networks well established through the border,' said US Rear Admiral Gregory Smith. IEDs are home-made bombs - the weapon of choice for increasingly emboldened militants in Afghanistan. Smith, deputy chief of staff of ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force, added of Iran: 'They want to be in the game.'" http://t.uani.com/idTWSY
AFP: "The United States will take action if Venezuela violates international sanctions against Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tuesday as she defended outreach to the Cuban people. 'If there is any evidence that they have violated the sanctions, we will act against them,' Clinton told lawmakers during a congressional hearing. But the top US diplomat also acknowledged there was no evidence so far that the regime of firebrand leftist leader Hugo Chavez had violated sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which Western powers believe seeks to build nuclear weapons. Washington is closely examining whether Venezuela's cooperation with Iran on energy issues violates international sanctions on the Tehran regime after the two major oil producers and longtime US foes signed 11 deals in Tehran focused on energy cooperation in October." http://t.uani.com/fPjXvh
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
JPost: "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tuesday that Iran was aggressively trying to take advantage of the domestic upheavals across the Arab world, and warned that the United States needed to maintain robust aid and involvement in the region to keep Tehran from succeeding. Clinton described Iran as working 'every single day with as many assets as they can muster, trying to take hold of this legitimate movement for democracy,' in testimony before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee... Clinton also underscored that the US remained committed to ratcheting up the pressure of sanctions against Iran, 'constantly looking to improve them, to strengthen them, to tighten them.' Yet members of Congress chastised the administration for not doing enough to impose sanctions on foreign companies, as was enabled by legislation passed last summer. 'We have not yet sanctioned any non- Iranian bank or energy company, even though we know several are engaged in sanctionable activities,' House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Howard Berman told Clinton." http://t.uani.com/hPDHZ5
AFP: "US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that protests across the Arab world have dealt a major setback to Al-Qaeda militants and Iran by endorsing democratic change... The Pentagon chief, a former intelligence analyst and CIA director, said that the example of mostly peaceful uprisings also posed a problem for Iran that might become more acute over time. 'Because the contrast in the behavior of the militaries in Tunisia and in Egypt, and -- except for a brief period of violence -- in Bahrain, contrast vividly with the savage repression that the Iranians have undertaken against anybody who dares to demonstrate,' Gates explained." http://t.uani.com/gQ0T0T
AFP: "Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday shrugged off a decision to halt its Bushehr nuclear plant, saying that Tehran was running routine tests because safety is its priority. 'We make routine tests and repeat our tests, because safety is our priority in the start of a reactor,' said Salehi on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. 'Safety and reliability is more important than the start of a reactor,' he added. Iran on Saturday announced that it was removing the fuel from the reactor of the Russian-built nuclear power plant, a move seen as a big blow to its controversial nuclear programme." http://t.uani.com/eF1sSe
Reuters: "Iran has not unloaded fuel at its Bushehr nuclear power plant, its Foreign Ministry spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday, contradicting information from a senior Iranian envoy. 'The nuclear fuel has not been unloaded at the Bushehr power plant and this plant is continuing its routine activities,' spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. Iran's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog had said on Feb. 26 that Tehran was having to remove fuel from the reactor of its only nuclear power station, signalling more problems for the Russian-built Bushehr plant after decades of delay." http://t.uani.com/fHUzyd
Bloomberg: "Iran plans to install long-range radar systems in several months to boost its air defenses, Fars reported, citing a senior commander. The radar will be deployed in the new Iranian calendar year that starts March 21st, the state-run news agency said, citing Abolfazl Farmahini, operations commander at the Khatam al-Anbia air base. The locally built radar covers up to 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles), the agency reported late yesterday. Secondary and complementary radar systems will used for Iranian air space not covered by the long-range systems, the news service said." http://t.uani.com/eYop9P
Human Rights
AFP: "Iran has hanged 10 drug traffickers, including seven who were executed in the southern province of Kerman, media reports say. Seven convicted drug smugglers were hanged in prisons in the Kerman cities of Bam and Jiroft today according to Arman newspaper. Three others were hanged in a prison in the southern city of Shiraz, according to the judiciary website of the province of Fars. The website did not say when the three were executed. All 10 were found guilty of possessing various amounts of heroin, opium, crack cocaine and morphine, reports said. Possession of more than 30 grams (just over an ounce) of narcotics is punishable by death in Iran, as are murder, rape, armed robbery and adultery. The latest hangings bring to 89 the number of executions reported in Iran so far in 2011, according to an AFP count based on media reports. The authorities say 80 per cent of those executed have been drug traffickers." http://t.uani.com/eFbtWs
Domestic Politics
WSJ: "Protesters in Iran marched in several cities Tuesday, calling for the release of opposition leaders and clashing with security forces. Some of the marches have been described by eyewitnesses as the largest and angriest to date. One eyewitness sent this account: 'At around 5:50 someone chanted and the Basij fired tear gas. The crowd started running away (but didn't disperse) Then five or six Basijis started beating a young man who had chanted. We continued on vehicle and drove around Enghelab Square. Most streets leading to the area were closed until at least 9. So we couldn't get into Tohid or any other hot zones... but from all the bikers moving around in large numbers we could tell things were heated. At Vanak and Vali-asr Square forces were present in large numbers.' Despite the crackdown on the opposition, videos of the protests are making their way out of Iran." http://t.uani.com/fJrQ2s
AFP: "Iran was urged to take 'firm legal action' against opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in a parliamentary report Wednesday, as prosecutors denied they have been jailed. The demand was made by a parliamentary panel following its probe into February 14 anti-government protests called by Mousavi and Karroubi, whose families say the are being held in a Tehran jail. But Iran denies they have been detained. The panel's report said Western powers, including the Islamic republic's arch-foe the United States, were behind the protests. 'The intervention of embassies and their elements in the 2009 sedition and the February 14 American-Israeli and British rebellion is totally unacceptable,' said the report read out in parliament on Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/hekcyM
Reuters: "An Iranian diplomat who defected last month said Tuesday that Iran's leaders would rather 'slaughter' their own people than surrender power to any popular revolt inspired by uprisings across the Arab world. Ahmed Maleki, who was vice consul of Iran's consulate in Milan before fleeing to Paris with his family last month, is the latest in a string of officials to defect from the Islamic state and join a year-old opposition group called the Green Wave. He said in an interview that Iranians had been inspired by images of popular revolt in North Africa but faced a regime far more brutal than those of Egypt, Tunisia or even Libya. 'In the course of the past 32 years the sole objective of the regime has been to retain power,' he told Reuters at a prestigious hotel in Paris, speaking through an interpreter." http://t.uani.com/h2LAlk
AP: "A semiofficial Iranian news agency says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 34-year-old car has been sold for nearly $2.5 million at an auction to raise money for a low-income housing project. ISNA's report Tuesday doesn't identify the buyer, but quotes the individual's lawyer, Mamoud Isari, as saying the buyer plans to build a museum and exhibit the car. The 1977 white Peugeot sedan was put up for auction in January in a move by the president to appear to fulfill a campaign promise to put a roof over the head of every Iranian." http://t.uani.com/dWW83w
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday warned the United States against military intervention in Libya, saying such action would create a graveyard for its soldiers. Ahmadinejad, under whose presidency animosity between Tehran and Washington has heightened, said the current situation was completely different to what it was during the tenure of former US president George W. Bush. '(Bush) used a deception named September 11 to prepare the ground to invade Iraq and Afghanistan,' Ahmadinejad said at a public speech in the western province of Lorestan. 'Be warned that if you intervene militarily one more time, in any of the countries in North Africa or the Middle East, the regional nations will rise and dig the graves of your soldiers,' he said, referring to reports that the West was weighing up military option to oust Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi." http://t.uani.com/g67NON
Opinion & Analysis
NY DailyNews Editorial Board: "While the world watches and wonders how the tumult in Egypt and Libya will settle - whether they will become free, stable states or something more menacing - let us remember the threatening Mideast reality staring us in the face: In Iran, population 73 million, the nuclear-weapons-hungry regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is perfecting the art of repression and intimidation. It was two summers ago that people rose up to protest a rigged election - and were gassed, shot down and thrown in prison. It was last month that protesters, inspired by the toppling of autocratic regimes - and offended by their government's claim of standing with the Egyptian masses - tried to rekindle the movement. Two died and dozens were injured in the regime's payback. Late last week came payback, part II: The two most prominent opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, went from being under house arrest to simply disappearing. Relatives suspect they are being held in a military garrison, but there has been no independent confirmation of their whereabouts. Iranian authorities, of course, deny the reports - but neither of these very public men, nor either man's wife, has been seen or has posted a statement to a website in more than a week. Yesterday, the people took to the streets again. How many? Impossible to say. Iranian authorities have banned the media from covering protests. But we do know from witnesses who posted on opposition websites that protesters turned out and chanted 'Death to the dictator.' We know that riot police charged and used tear gas to disperse them. Let this be a lesson: Just because Iran is quiet doesn't mean the people aren't screaming as their rulers pursue Islamist domination of the region." http://t.uani.com/i2cNWC
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