Yesterday, Iran’s hardline regime accused the United States of fueling “Iran phobia” by deploying missile defense systems in several Persian Gulf countries that increasingly feel threatened by Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehrmanparast complained that “We regard these (U.S.) measures as a conspiracy and a ploy by foreign countries to create a sense of Iran phobia.” He attacked U.S. officials for spreading fear: “Because they have lost their presence in Iran, they feel they have no foothold and in order to justify their presence (in the region) they make such …
Considering the atrocious abuses of human rights committed by the Iranian government against those who speak out against its tyranny, it comes as no surprise that Iran, according to a Wall Street Journal investigative report, “has been conducting a campaign of harassing and intimidating members of its diaspora world-wide.” Farnaz Fassihi reports that Iranians living abroad, have received ominous emails from Iranian security forces, warning that their families will be in danger, if their actions against the regime persist. Many Iranian citizens have been detained at airports and interrogated as …
Iran’s state-controlled media have launched a full-blown propaganda campaign claiming that the United States and Israel are responsible for the murder of an Iranian scientist. Iran’s Foreign Ministry charged that the bomb plot that killed Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in Tehran on Tuesday “revealed signs of the involvement of the Zionist regime, the U.S. and their allies in Iran.” By portraying Ali-Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist and former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was “martyred,” the regime claims that his killers are counter-revolutionary forces backed by foreign powers …
Protests against the regime in Tehran and its heavy-handed treatment of dissidents are growing. One of two things is going to happen. The regime is going to collapse or the mullahs are going to clamp down even harder and the government in Tehran is going to become more extremist and more dangerous. The problem is that the White House is not well-prepared for either outcome. This administration is certainly not ready to engage with the people of Iran and nurture and support their quest for freedom. As Heritage’s expert on …
I wrote back in June about the shameful silence of the Obama administration during the mass street protests that greeted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent re-election victory as President of Iran. As White House spokesman Robert Gibbs ludicrously put it, the administration was “impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm this election generated.” Or in Vice President Joe Biden’s words on NBC’s Meet the Press, describing Ahmadinejad’s victory – “we’re going to withhold comment… I mean we’re just waiting to see.” Embarrassingly for Washington, even many European leaders showed more backbone in …
Iran’s list of hostages is steadily growing despite the Obama Administration’s zealous efforts to engage Iran’s brutal dictatorship. Three young American hikers who accidentally strayed across the Iranian border last summer now face charges of espionage, which is punishable by the death penalty in Iran. Yesterday an Iranian prosecutor indicated that the three hikers, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 30, and Joshua Fattal, 27, were being investigated as spies after they were arrested, allegedly on the Iranian side of the poorly-marked Iraq-Iran border on July 31. Today Iranian President Mahmoud …
The Obama Administration ironically recognized the legitimacy of Iran’s thuggish Islamist regime only a few months before the Iranian people renounced its legitimacy in a spontaneous popular backlash against the stolen June elections.This has led to considerable confusion and growing bitterness within Iran’s embattled opposition movement. As the Wall Street Journal has noted, the Iranian protesters who chanted “O ba ma!” (“He with us” in Farsi) in demonstrations against the Ahmadinejad regime last summer, now are chanting, “Obama, Obama—either you’re with them or with us.” The courageous Iranians risking their …
Many predicted President Barack Obama would receive a standing ovation from the United Nations General Assembly today. Heritage fellow Nile Gardiner explains why: It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama …
