Letter from Tehran: Iran’s new hardliners

Who Is in Control of the Islamic Republic?

Iran’s disputed election marked the rise of a new power elite. Now, with more protests looming and a nuclear program facing international pressure, can the Revolutionary Guard and its allies sustain their tightening grip on the Islamic Republic?

(Jerry Guo | Foreign Policy | 30 September 2009) - The headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are in a European-style palace, replete with Greek columns and a grand staircase, in the eastern suburbs of Tehran. From here, the IRGC orchestrated the crackdown that followed Iran’s disputed presidential vote in June, beating protestors on the street and torturing those behind bars. More ominously, the IGRC and other extreme hard-liners have sidelined fellow conservatives in the Iranian government, carving out their own power base in a regime that is becoming increasingly insular, reactionary, and violent. Read the rest of this entry »

Iran Reformists Challenge Supreme Leader

An Open Letter to a Senior Clerical Assembly Demands an Inquiry into Whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Is Fit to Rule

(Farnaz Fassihi | Wall Street Journal | 15 August 2009) – In a daring move, a group of former reformist lawmakers, now supporters of the opposition, have challenged whether the Islamic Republic’s top man in power is fit to rule. Read the rest of this entry »

Friction among Iran authorities heats up

With street protests quiet, factional disputes intensify. Hard-line clerics call for opposition leader Karroubi to stand trial, and reformist lawmakers want supreme leader Khamenei investigated.

(Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim | Los Angeles Times | 15 August 2009) - Rival camps within Iran’s corridors of power intensified their threats against each other Friday, signaling potentially dangerous clashes within elite circles and the security establishment after the disputed June 12 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read the rest of this entry »

Iran Tries to Suppress Rape Allegations

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, in a sermon at Tehran University on Friday, denounced claims that protesters had been raped. (Abedin Taherkenareh/European Pressphoto Agency)

(Robert F. Worth and Nazila Fathi | New York Times | 14 August 2009) — Iran’s clerical leadership on Friday stepped up a campaign to silence opposition claims that protesters had been raped in prison, with prayer leaders in at least three major cities denouncing the accusations and their chief sponsor. Read the rest of this entry »

Inauguration Expected To Spark More Unrest In Iran

National Public Radio – August 3, 2009

By Mike Schuster Read the rest of this entry »

Iranians Gather in Grief, Then Face Police

Protesters chanting slogans at an opposition rally at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery outside Tehran on Thursday.

By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI (New York Times, July 30, 2009)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Thousands of people gathered in Tehran on Thursday to commemorate those killed in Iran’s post-election crackdown, but a vast deployment of police officers used tear gas and wooden batons to disperse them, in some of the largest and most violent street clashes in weeks.

The mourners gathered at the freshly-dug graves of protesters, including Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman whose bloodied image has become an icon of the opposition movement. As opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi arrived at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, the police barred him from entering, and angry mourners chanted “Neda lives! Ahmadinejad is dead!” referring to Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses said. Read the rest of this entry »

Reports of Prison Abuse and Deaths Anger Iranians

By ROBERT F. WORTH (Published in the New York Times on July 28, 2009)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Some prisoners say they watched fellow detainees being beaten to death by guards in overcrowded, stinking holding pens. Others say they had their fingernails ripped off or were forced to lick filthy toilet bowls.

The accounts of prison abuse in Iran’s postelection crackdown — relayed by relatives and on opposition Web sites — have set off growing outrage among Iranians, including some prominent conservatives. More bruised corpses have been returned to families in recent days, and some hospital officials have told human rights workers that they have seen evidence that well over 100 protesters have died since the vote.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday Surprise in Iran?

Published on July 16, 2009 in the The Daily Beast by Reza Aslan

AP Photo

Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most powerful man in Iran, is delivering the Friday Sermon in Tehran. Will it be the end of the protests, or a new challenge to the regime?

Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most powerful man in Iran (after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and one of the principal figures behind the anti-Ahmadinejad movement that has rocked the country over the last month, will deliver the Friday Sermon in Tehran this week, the first time he has been offered the prestigious pulpit in years. Read the rest of this entry »

Iran’s Power Struggle: Perspectives from around the world

Discussions in the media on Iranian politics has shifted to a different level after a group of clerics declared the June 12 poll results illegitimate. The unresolved political turmoil is leading to mounting tensions.

“At Newsy.com global access to multiple perspectives helps provide the real story. We will not change the news, but we will change your view of it.”

Newsy.com is a multiperspective online video news site that monitors, synthesizes and presents the world’s news coverage.  News sources are abundant yet redundant.  Newsy.com takes a step back to show how the world’s news organizations are reporting a story – providing an unprecedented global and macro point of view.  You’ll find CNN right next to Al Jazeera, the BBC right next to ABC. Newsy.com  also covers major newspapers, news magazines as well as top blogs from around the world. By monitoring the world’s new coverage, we provide immediate analysis of news perspectives so you can form your own opinion.

Iranians demand basic social and economic justice from their leaders

It is reprehensible that those running the country tell the Iranian people, many of them living without the basic necessities of life, that they do not have enough money to support the country, yet hold offshore bank accounts with hundreds of millions of dollars. Such actions fundamentally violate the basic Islamic principles of social justice and charity to the poor, which leaders that derive their authority from Islam are duty-bound to observe.

Let us not forget that before Iranians took to the street demanding “where is my vote,” they rallied for candidates that promised social and economic justice. A way forward with dignity and promise for the Iranian people. In this spirit, we join the Iranian people in their fight for their economic and social rights by denouncing those that by their actions deny them realizing their full human potential, and hence freedom in all its possibility.

- Ed Hale, singer/songwriter and PeacewithIran.com co-founder

Foreign Bank Accounts of Prominent Iranian Leaders Read the rest of this entry »