Iranian legislator Ali Motahari claimed on Wednesday that President Obama called for direct talks in a secret letter sent last week to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Motahari said that the first part of the letter warned that if Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, it would cross a red line that would trigger U.S. military action, and the second part offered to start direct talks with Tehran. Hojjatoleslam Hossein Ebrahimi, the deputy chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Wednesday that “Obama’s letter …
Last Thursday marked the closing of the 38th Baghdad International Trade Fair, an annual event intended to showcase international corporations to Iraqis and Iraqi corporations to the world. This year’s installment, lasting 10 days and drawing more than 1 million visitors, was made all the more special by the fact that the U.S. participated for the first time in 20 years. Coming on the heels of President Obama’s announcement of a total U.S. troop pullout by the end of the year, U.S. participation at the Trade Fair is sending mixed …
Today, an Iranian Christian pastor’s life hangs in the balance as he sits in a prison in Iran. Yousef Nadarkhani was handed a death sentence in 2009 after questioning the Muslim teachings that his children were receiving at school. While that was the original charge, the Iranian government now claims that Nadarkhani illegally converted from Islam to Christianity as well. The list of alleged crimes is growing. Despite signing the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Iran does not recognize the freedom to change religion. Sadly, worldwide religious persecution, specifically …
If ever there was a case for regime change, today’s Iran is it. Today on the anniversary of the revolution that brought the country’s authoritarian, theocratic government to power offers an opportunity to rectify the mistake made by the Obama administration last summer when it failed to lend material support to Iran’s burgeoning pro-democracy movement. The “don’t rock the boat” approach has not worked — as was amply clear at the time that it would not do. In fact, it was dangerously naive. The notion that the ayatollahs would somehow …
Tensions continue to build within Iran ahead of the annual celebration of the 1979 Islamic revolution on February 11. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Monday for unity and vowed that Iran would “punch the arrogance” on the anniversary: “The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned.” Washington responded to the heightened Iranian rhetoric by increasing sanctions on the revolutionary guards and lamenting the hypocrisy of Iran’s …
In Venice, Italy for the premiere of an adulatory documentary, “South of the Border” directed by Oliver Stone, Venezuela’s peripatetic, anti-American president Hugo Chavez said he was ready for better relations with President Obama. “With Obama we can talk,” enthused Chavez, “we are almost from the same generation, one can’t deny that Obama is different (from Bush). He’s intelligent, he has good intentions and we have to help him.” Although inclined to quote Castro, Lenin, or Karl Marx, Chavez added, “I’m entirely dedicated to building a real democratic model in …
