Iraq election fraud in favor of groups backed by Iran regime

Thursday, 22 December 2005

NCRI - Ibrahim al-Janabi, a representative for former Prime Minister Allawi, delivered a statement today describing the December 15 elections in all of Iraq's 18 provinces as "fraudulent." during a press conference by dozens of Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups in Baghdad. The groups threatened to boycott Iraq's new legislature if complaints about tainted voting are not reviewed by an international body. A joint statement issued by 35 political groups that competed in last week's elections said the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, which oversaw the ballot, should be disbanded.

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Iran regime threatening EU for its human rights concern

Thursday, 22 December 2005

NCRI – Iranian regime will halt its human rights dialogue with the European Union, according to mullahs’ foreign ministry spokesman, after it condemned continued abuses by the regime. "During the current year, the EU has put forward human rights resolutions with political intentions, and naturally this trend will leave no place for Iran to continue human rights talks," state-run media quoted the spokesman on Thursday.

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EU-Iran nuclear dialogue to resume but hopes dim

Thursday, 22 December 2005

Reuters - European powers revive dialogue with Iran on Wednesday over suspicions it is secretly trying to make nuclear bombs, but weeks of tension have diminished hopes they will make headway in defusing the crisis. Confrontation rather than compromise has been brewing after declarations from Iran that the Holocaust is a myth and Israel should be wiped out, and a European Union accusation on Tuesday that Tehran has serially violated human rights at home.

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Sunni, secular groups demand new vote

Wednesday, 21 December 2005

Claims That Iraqi Ballot Was Rigged Threaten to Derail Government, Boost Insurgency Washington Post, BAGHDAD - Sunni and secular political groups angrily claimed Tuesday that last week's Iraqi national election was rigged, demanded a new vote and threatened to leave a shambles the delicate plan to bring the country's wary factions together in a new government.

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Western music is latest target of Iran's hardline president

Wednesday, 21 December 2005

- Holocaust denial followed by cultural crackdown - Bee Gees and Clapton among artists banned Robert Tait in Tehran The Guardian - Having outraged the international community by denying the holocaust and Israel's right to exist, Iran's combative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has launched an offensive against new western targets - George Michael, Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees. In a decree that threatens to turn the clock back to 1979, when Iran was gripped by the Islamic revolution, Mr Ahmadinejad has ordered state broadcasters to stop playing "decadent" western music and to favour "fine Iranian music" instead.

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Israel claims Iran has new missiles

Wednesday, 21 December 2005

United Press International - A senior Israeli intelligence officer said Tuesday Iran has recently acquired 12 long-range cruise missiles with the capability of carrying nuclear warheads. Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze'evi told a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee the missiles have a range of more than 1,800 miles, and said they had originated in a batch of 18 missiles shipped from Ukraine to Russia. He said the other six ended up in China, the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz reported.

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Little optimism ahead of EU-Iran nuclear talks

Tuesday, 20 December 2005

Reuters - France, Britain and Germany resume low-level talks with Iran this week about its nuclear programme, but EU diplomats expressed little optimism that talks with Iran's hardline government would yield a breakthrough.

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Diplomats say Iran laying groundwork for uranium enrichment

Tuesday, 20 December 2005

Agence France Presse - On the eve of crucial nuclear talks with Iran, diplomats say Tehran is already laying the groundwork for uranium enrichment, and may even be secretly making parts for sophisticated P2 centrifuges. "The Iranian National Security Council is at this very time deliberating exactly when enrichment is to be resumed," a diplomat told AFP. Enriched uranium can fuel nuclear power plants or be used in atom bombs, and the ability to produce it is considered a "breakout capacity" for making nuclear weapons.

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Iran's President Bans All Western Music - AP

Tuesday, 20 December 2005

Associated Press - Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from Iran's state radio and TV stations — an eerie reminder of the 1979 Islamic revolution when popular music was outlawed as "un-Islamic" under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Today, though, the sounds of hip-hop can be heard blaring from car radios in Tehran's streets, and Eric Clapton's "Rush" and the Eagles' "Hotel California" regularly accompany Iranian broadcasts.

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