Top Stories
Bloomberg: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office rejected media reports that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded he openly back the intelligence minister or step down. Newspapers, including Tehran-based Shargh, have reported there is a widening rift between Iranian leaders, reflected by Ahmadinejad's dispute with his minister, Heidar Moslehi. The Tehran-based Aftab newspaper on May 5 said Khamenei issued an ultimatum to Ahmadinejad to support the minister, citing Parliamentary member Morteza Agha-Tehrani. 'This news is wrong and it's hereby rejected,' the president's office said in a statement published late yesterday on its website. 'We request all media to avoid publishing unofficial news about the president.' Khamenei -- the country's highest authority -- last month reinstated Moslehi, whose resignation had earlier been accepted by the president. Ahmadinejad stayed away from official meetings for a week following the reinstatement, though he denied there were conflicts when he returned to work on May 2. He didn't elaborate on his absence and has yet to back the reinstatement. In a sermon in Tehran yesterday, senior cleric Kazem Sedighi urged the president to submit to the will of Khamenei, the state-run Fars news agency reported." http://t.uani.com/k8Ldqa
WashPost: "Apparently bowing to unprecedented pressure from Iran's clerical establishment, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed an intelligence minister he had ousted in April back into his cabinet meeting on Sunday. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had publicly reinstated intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi following his dismissal by Ahmadinejad, it took more than three weeks for the two men to officially meet in a cabinet session. Following the supreme leader's decision, Ahmadinejad did not go to his office for eight days. He returned to work a week ago, publicly pledging his allegiance to Khamenei and denying that a rift had developed between the two men. But when the cabinet met on Wednesday, the president and Moslehi apparently avoided being in the same room, Web sites reported, citing 'busy schedules' as their reason for not meeting." http://t.uani.com/ivyUAR
NYT: "The unprecedented power struggle between the two most powerful leaders in Iran deepened Friday, spilling out into Tehran's public prayers where the mullah leading the service indirectly criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while the crowd chanted 'Death to opponents of the supreme leader!' ... Even before the chants at Friday Prayer, a signature event since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, important conservative factions had pronounced their support for the supreme leader, including the government's primary enforcers, the Revolutionary Guards. Ayatollah Khamenei's infallibility was the subject of Friday Prayer in at least half a dozen large cities besides Tehran, according to media reports. 'It is quite astounding in a way where on a daily basis people are coming out and saying that Khamenei has the constitutional right and the religious right to do what he wants to do,' said Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii. 'Ahmadinejad has effectively lost the support of the base. If you do not have the support of Khamenei, you are nobody.'" http://t.uani.com/jVdueY
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Iran is conducting final tests at its first nuclear power plant and it is expected to start generating electricity in the next two months, Iranian media said on Monday. Meant to be the first of a network of nuclear power stations Iran says it is planning, the Russian-built Bushehr complex has missed deadline after deadline to come on stream, most recently fuel had to be removed and checked for technical problems. Fars news agency said Bushehr would start injecting power into the national electricity grid in the next two months." http://t.uani.com/lTaKEQ
NYT: "Israel's former intelligence chief has said that a strike on Iran's nuclear installations would be 'a stupid idea,' adding that military action might not achieve all of its goals and could lead to a long war. The intelligence official, Meir Dagan, who retired in early January after eight years as director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, made the remarks at a conference here on Friday. His assessment contradicts the policy of the country's political leaders, who have long argued in favor of a credible military option against Iran's nuclear program. The defense minister, Ehud Barak, criticized Mr. Dagan after his comments were widely publicized in the Israeli news media on Sunday. Mr. Barak, saying that Mr. Dagan deserved credit for his contributions to state security, contended that he was 'not wise to share his thoughts, legitimate as they may be,' with the general public." http://t.uani.com/j4Vol6
Human Rights
Guardian: "Iran is playing an increasingly active role in helping the Syrian regime in its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, according to western diplomatic sources in Damascus. The claim came as Syria's security forces backed by tanks intensified operations to suppress unrest in three new flashpoint towns on Sunday and it was confirmed that four women had been shot dead in the first use of force against an all-female demonstration. A senior western diplomat in Damascus expanded on assertions, first made by White House officials last month, that Iran is advising president Bashar al-Assad's government on how to crush dissent. The diplomat pointed to a 'significant' increase in the number of Iranian personnel in Syria since protests began in mid-March." http://t.uani.com/mhUbUD
CNN: "The families of two American hikers set to stand trial this week on charges of spying called on Tehran Monday to release the men. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who have been jailed in Iran since 2009, are set Wednesday to answer charges of illegal entry and espionage -- charges that can carry the death penalty.The case has been delayed twice before because a third American defendant, Sara Shourd, has not appeared in court to face similar charges. 'For more than 21 months, Shane and Josh have been locked up, isolated from their families and the world and denied any semblance of due process,' the families said in a statement. 'The charges they face are as cynical, unjust and unreasonable as the length of their incarceration and it is time for Iranian judicial authorities to stop playing games with their lives.'" http://t.uani.com/inQgoI
Reuters: "Jailed Iranian film directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof will be honored at the Cannes film festival this year, organizers said on Sunday. Rasoulof's 'Good Bye' -- the story of a young Tehran lawyer trying to get a visa to leave Iran, and 'This is not a film' -- Panahi's depiction of a day in his life as he waits for the verdict of a court appeal, will be shown at the festival, they said. The film festival, which opens on May 11, will also see Pahani awarded the Carrosse d'Or (Golden Coach) prize by the SRF society of directors, a tribute to the 'innovative qualities, courage and independent-mindedness' of his work, the SRF said. Panahi, winner of many international awards and a supporter of Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in the 2009 disputed presidential vote, was sentenced in December to six years in prison and banned from making films or traveling abroad for 20 years. Rasoulof received a similar sentence." http://t.uani.com/kjBVIP
Domestic Politics
WashPost: "Several associates of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's closest adviser have been arrested in the past few days, Iranian Web sites reported Friday. Among them is the cleric who leads the prayers at the presidential mosque, Abbas Amirifar, as well as a person accused of sorcery, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The arrests follow increasing pressure by clerics, politicians and commanders on Ahmadinejad to cut ties with Esfandiar Rahim Mashaee, the closest adviser of the president, but a man hated by Iran's clerics for advocating the importance of Iranian culture over Islamic tenets. Many of those arrested are said to have a connection with Mashaee and with a movie, distributed though millions of DVDs, that claims the Shiite Messiah will appear in January. Predicting the exact date of the coming of the 12th imam is regarded as superstition in the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad often says the coming of 'Imam Mahdi,' as the Messiah is called, is 'near.'" http://t.uani.com/lvrkwo
NYT: "For Mr. Oskouei (pronounced os-koo-WEE), picture postcards are as much a part of the cultural healing process as the documentaries for which he was a recipient of a 2010 Prince Claus Award of 25,000 euros (about $37,000) from the Dutch Foreign Ministry. His films have broached delicate issues like female suicide in traditional communities, juvenile drug addiction and Iran's crisis of youth identity, themes that could easily land an Iranian in jail. He is best known outside Iran for his 2006 film, 'Nose, Iranian Style,' about the prevalence of nose jobs in Iran, a world leader, per capita, with 60,000 to 70,000 operations a year... But perhaps his most remarkable accomplishment is to handle these subjects mostly without running afoul of the clerics, the censors or other artists, some of whom have accused him of being too accommodating." http://t.uani.com/jXzzNs
AFP: "Iran's ruling conservatives have increased the pressure on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to 'obey' the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying his latest pledges did not go far enough. 'The president said he would dishearten the enemies of the regime (in accepting Khamenei's authority) but that is not enough. We are waiting for him to act on his words,' said influential religious authority Hojatoleslam Kazem Sediqi, widely quoted in Sunday papers. Ahmadinejad told a cabinet meeting on May 1 that he would obey Khamenei like 'a son would his father' in an attempt to draw a line on the stand-off between the two leaders. The president had last month boycotted all public duties for eight days after Khamenei vetoed his sacking of Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, an ally of the supreme leader. But later on Sunday, he reiterated his allegiance to the Velayat-e Faqih system of supreme leader in Iran. 'The government with strength in word and action will continue to defend Velayat-e Faqih,' Ahmadinejad said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, quoted on state television's website." http://t.uani.com/kOxOvz
Bloomberg: "Iran's unemployed population increases by about 1.6 million each year, Shargh reported, citing parliamentary member Jalal Mahmoudzadeh. Iran's population mostly consists of young people and there aren't enough jobs created to match the number of Iranians graduating from universities each year, Mahmoudzadeh said in a report published by the Tehran-based newspaper today. Official figures claim there are 2.5 million unemployed in Iran which fails to take into account part-time workers, the newspaper quoted Mahmoudzadeh as saying. Iran has a population of almost 75 million. Iran's Labour Ministry said last year that at least 20 percent of university graduates are unemployment." http://t.uani.com/ma3YvM
Reuters: "Iran is basing the oil price for its 2011/12 budget at around $81.50 per barrel and expects the price of oil to pick up again during the start of the summer season, Iran's OPEC governor told Reuters on Sunday. 'We are basing the oil price in out budget which will be finalized in about two to three days at around $81.5,' Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that prices are expected to recover as the summer season approaches. Typically Iran is one of the OPEC members that had always given a preference to higher oil prices in order to support its economy." http://t.uani.com/iln7GJ
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Senior officials in the United Arab Emirates are holding talks with Iran's foreign minister amid growing Gulf accusations of political meddling by Tehran. The official news agency WAM says Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met Sunday with top UAE envoys as part of a tour seeking to ease tensions. Salehi last week visited Qatar and Oman. Shiite heavyweight Iran has sharply criticized efforts by the Gulf's Sunni leaders to quell pro-reform protests, including sending a Saudi-led military force to aid Bahrain's monarchy in March. Bahrain's majority Shiites have since faced sweeping crackdowns." http://t.uani.com/jdZF1u
Opinion & Analysis
Ali Akbar Dareni in AP: "Iran's political tremors are leaving debris in all directions. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the nation's intelligence chief remain in a cold war. A wave of reported detentions has included a prayer leader who angered clerics with a film about Judgment Day. An influential Friday prayer leader lectured Ahmadinejad about the huge risks of defying Iran's supreme leader, and websites claim that the president has an ultimatum to either fall in line or step down. All the upheaval was ostensibly triggered by last month's boomerang over the powerful intelligence minister, Heidar Moslehi. Ahmadinejad wanted him gone, yet Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered him to stay in a public slap to the president. But to better understand the current clash between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, a visit back to their first major collision in 2009 is needed. That battle - as this one - has a political lightening rod named Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as a central figure. In July 2009, just weeks after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, he picked his close confidant Mashaei as the most senior of his many vice presidents. Iran's hard-liners were so stunned that it even diverted their attention from the riots on Tehran's streets. Mashaei is reviled by archconservatives for statements including his homage to Iran's pre-Islamic values and suggesting that Iran may despise Israel's government but can be friends with its people. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the pinnacle of Iran's ruling theocracy, quickly stepped in and Mashaei was gone within the week in a stinging embarrassment to Ahmadinejad. But Ahmadinejad regrouped and gave the post of chief of staff to Mashaei, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son. Move ahead to the current showdown. Here's Mashaei again. Ahmadinejad apparently has been testing the ground for Mashaei to run as his successor in 2013. But any such plan needs control of the intelligence ministry, whose files can potentially sink any political ambitions with facts or innuendo. Now Ahmadinejad is stuck with an intelligence minister he rejects and tied to political ally Mashaei who is apparently being pushed into political exile on the wishes of the supreme leader." http://t.uani.com/iGDfZs
Reza Kahlili in Fox News: "The news of the killing of the Al Qaeda leader, usama bin Laden, was truly joyous and a shining moment in our history where justice was served. It made our enemies aware of the fact that we do not forget nor forgive those who do us harm. We will pursue them no matter how long it takes until justice has been done. However, the demise of Bin Laden should be the beginning of our search as to how we got into such vulnerable position in the first place. We must make sure that no enemy can ever again be allowed to bring harm upon us because of our own failings... There is an eerie similarity here with the radicals ruling Iran. They proudly bombed the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983 killing over 240 of our best and then boasted about it. Mohsen Rafiqdoost, then the Minister of the Revolutionary Guards, publicly stated that: 'Both the TNT and the ideology, which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs, and soldiers at the Marine's headquarters, were provided by Iran.' In response, we removed our forces from Lebanon. The Iranians formed Hezbollah, helped Islamic Jihad, armed and trained terrorists across the region and took hostages with fatal results. For their efforts, we rewarded them with arms in exchange for the freedom of a few (Iran Contra). Our actions, or lack thereof, again signaled our weakness and affirmed their belief that Allah is the one and only God and that they have his protection. The Iranian leaders, encouraged with their continuing success, became ever more aggressive carrying out terrorist attacks through their proxies such as the Khobar Tower bombing in Saudi Arabia and the Jewish community center bombing in Argentina. And the West meekly offered negotiations as the only solution to their atrocious acts. The Iranians have for years armed and trained Shiite militias in Iraq with a strategy to bring down our forces, harm them, and drain the U.S. economically. All the U.S. officials have done is to issue stern warnings! Appeasement and vacillation do not work. World peace, global stability and millions of lives are on the line. Our first priority should be to stop these radicals in their tracks and to help Iranians free themselves from this evil. A new regime in Iran could transform the world for the better securing global stability and an end to much of terrorism throughout the world. Let Bin Laden's death serve as a wakeup call to the menace of radical Islamists ruling Iran and the need to confront them before it's too late for all of us. The threat is still there and is very real." http://t.uani.com/iy0cf7
Tony Karon in TIME: "Iran's streets are quiet, the uprising that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection two years ago but a memory as opposition leaders languish in prison or under house arrest, and fear of the brutal security forces restrains most from protesting. And yet, there are unmistakable signs that the regime is literally cracking up. A public confrontation between Ahmadinejad and Iran's clerical Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei has escalated into a high-noon showdown from which neither man can retreat without losing face - and damaging the regime, one way or another. Reports from Iran Friday suggested that Khamenei has given Ahmadinejad an ultimatum: Accept the Supreme Leader's reinstatement of Heydar Moslehi, the intelligence minister fired two weeks ago by Ahmadinejad, or resign as president. Khamenei's move to reinstate a cabinet minister fired by Ahmadinejad marks an unprecedented meddling by the clerical leader in the affairs of the elected branch of government, and the President has - not for the first time - demonstrably bucked Khamenei's authority by refusing to attend cabinet meetings. At the same time, Ahmadinejad and his supporters have come under withering attack from the conservative clergy, and from political allies of the Supreme Leader in parliament, who appear to be reviving moves to impeach the President. Ahmadinejad's key ally and chosen successor in the presidency, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, was this week accused of 'sorcery', and the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards on Thursday expressed support for Khamenei, and warned that 'deviations' driven by 'djinns, fairies and demons' will not be tolerated. The Moslehi reappointment after Ahmadinejad fired him because of his loyalty to Khamenei and alleged spying on political figures was simply the last straw - a split between the Supreme Leader and the president he backed to the hilt in the 2009 election showdown has been looming ever since then." http://t.uani.com/jV10HG
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