Top Stories
AFP: "Two Iranian doctors who were jailed three years ago for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government were awarded a global health prize for their efforts to treat patients with HIV. Kamiar and Arash Alaei were arrested in June 2008 and accused of communicating with the United States in a bid to unseat the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Kamiar, 37, was released several months ago and was on hand to accept the award in Washington, but his elder brother Arash, 42, remains in Tehran's Evin prison where he is serving a six-year sentence. Until Arash is set free, Kamiar said he cannot move forward with his life. 'I feel I am not released yet,' he said in an interview with AFP before he accepted the Global Health Council's Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. 'The majority of nights I go back to prison and I continue my life in prison,' he said. Kamiar served two and a half years -- a term he remembers as '870 days, 3,800 hours' -- and is hopeful that Arash will be eligible for release soon because he has now served half his sentence." http://t.uani.com/ltxruu
Xinhau: "Head of Iranian Space Agency (ISA) said that Iran will launch three more satellites in space by the end of Iranian calendar year, ending on March 20, the state IRIB TV website said on Thursday. Iran, on Wednesday, announced that it 'successfully' put the Rasad (surveillance) satellite in the orbit to render images to the stations in the country. Three satellites will be put in the space in August, in October and in February respectively, said ISA Head Hamid Fazeli. He also added that Iran plans to launch its domestically-built satellite carrier, Kavoshgar 5 (Explorer5), into space in two months, the English language satellite Press TV reported on Thursday." http://t.uani.com/iJGGNp
YnetNews: "An online video uploaded by Syrian opposition activists shows protestors setting fire to Iranian and Hezbollah flags during a demonstration held east of Damascus on Tuesday. 'Not Iran and not Hezbollah, we want a president who's afraid of Allah,' the protesters shouted. During the past few days, Syrian opposition accused the Islamic Republic and the Shiite organization of helping suppress demonstrations in the country. They even uploaded videos to the internet showing them allegedly fighting off Iranian combatants in Syria." http://t.uani.com/lCr83S
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Fox News: "Even as the United Nations tries to use sanctions to block Iran's developing nuclear weapons program, one of the U.N.'s own organizations has quietly green-lighted the Islamic Republic's proposal to build a 'disaster information management center' that could, some experts fear, advance its ballistic capability. The decision puts the U.N. seal of approval on a controversial project that the United States has, until now, successfully blocked since Iran first proposed it in 2006. As if to underscore its victory, Iran this week announced that it had launched its own observation satellite, Rassad-1, which will remain in orbit for the next two months. The decision to approve the Iran proposal was taken without a vote on May 25 by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the self-described 'regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region.'" http://t.uani.com/inFSkR
UPI: "Discussions with New Delhi regarding a natural gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan 'have stalled,' Iranian officials said during a visit to India. Tehran was pushing for the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, which would have stretched from the South Pars gas complex in the Persian Gulf through Pakistan and India. The project, however, was up against a Western-backed project from Turkmenistan. A delegation led by Iranian Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Bagheri visited with Indian officials to press for the project. The Iranian team, however, left empty-handed. 'The discussions on the IPI have been stalled,' the Iranian delegation was quoted by Indian newspaper The Hindu as saying, 'so Iran and Pakistan are bilaterally pushing the idea. The option for India to join is open.'" http://t.uani.com/iuL6se
Human Rights
Boston Globe: "For years, Dr. Kamiar Alaei and his brother, Dr. Arash Alaei, fought the spread of AIDS in their native Iran. The clinics and anonymous needle exchanges they set up became a model for prevention around the world. But in 2008, the Iranian government arrested the Alaei brothers and subjected them to months of solitary confinement. In a one-day trial, they were convicted of 'communicating with an enemy government' - an apparent reference to their participation in international public health conferences supported by the United States. Kamiar Alaei was released from prison in October after a relentless campaign for the brothers' freedom spearheaded by the Cambridge-based Physicians for Human Rights. Arash Alaei remains imprisoned." http://t.uani.com/iSSB6U
Opinion & Analysis
Michael Singh in FP: "This week, Lebanon served up a reminder for the United States and the partisans of the Arab uprisings: don't count your democracies before they've hatched. Having thrown off the yoke of Syrian occupation in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon once again finds itself under the control of Iran and Syria. Allies of these two countries, including Hezbollah, control the majority of the posts in the new Lebanese cabinet announced on Monday... Hezbollah's actions illustrate the dangers of not excluding from democratic participation extremist groups which act as proxies for foreign powers, reject democratic values as a matter of principle, or fail to renounce violence. Hezbollah is a creature of Iran, conceived and built by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Many of its cabinet allies are themselves clients of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, with which Hezbollah coordinates closely. Indeed, it is no coincidence that this cabinet was formed just as the Assad regime finds itself in crisis. Facing pressure domestically, it is seeking strength (or at least to create distractions) outside its borders, whether by sending protesters to the Israeli border or maneuvering in Lebanon. Many outside observers have hoped that serving in the government would moderate Hezbollah. Those hopes have gone unfulfilled and will continue to be dashed as long as Iran and Syria see advantage in destabilizing their neighbors and Hezbollah itself sees the ballot box as a complement to rifles and rockets. The second lesson of Hezbollah's ascendancy is the need for sustained U.S. engagement with nascent democracies. The Cedar Revolution of 2005 was less a victory for democracy than the beginning of a long, hard battle for it. Following the success of the March 14 forces in expelling Syrian troops and the rise of the pro-sovereignty government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the U.S. and our allies engaged in diplomatic trench warfare against Iran and Syria for the future of Lebanon. U.S. support for Lebanese democrats from 2005-2008 included a steady stream of Lebanese visits to the White House and U.S. visits to Lebanon, increasing U.S. economic and security support for the Lebanese government, and U.N. Security Council resolutions and other measures designed to safeguard Lebanese sovereignty and beat back efforts by Iran and Syria to reassert control." http://t.uani.com/lJwDZD
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