MIDEAST: Iran, Israel Spoiling for a Fight?
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH, Mar 10 (IPS) – Iran and Israel appear to be spoiling for a fight, going by recent belligerent statements emanating from several regional capitals.
Military movement on the ground is also lending credence to the idea that the mutual loathing and major ideological differences [...]
IRAN: ‘We Won’t Send Our Uranium Abroad, Bring Yours Here’
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN
BY FAREED MAHDY*
IDN-InDepthNews Service
ISTANBUL (IDN) – Turkish diplomacy had to dive into the Western-Iranian troubled waters, in view of Western powers’ dissatisfaction with a new Tehran proposal on ways how to implement its latest draft agreement with them.
In fact, Turkish Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu flew to [...]
MIDDLE EAST: US, Russia To Iran ‘Send Your Uranium To Turkey, Otherwise . . .’
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN
BY FAREED MAHDY*
IDN-InDepthNews Service
ISTANBUL (IDN) – No wonder that Middle East events always run at high speed, being as it is the most conflictive region on Earth — in just few days, a “Turkish” solution to Iranian nuclear stand has appeared on the horizon. U.S. and Russia are [...]
POLITICS: Iran Began Preparing for U.S. Bombing in 2002
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (IPS) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published new evidence Monday that Iran had been building ”contingency centres” in the event of a U.S. bombing attack as early as 2002, years before it began building the second enrichment facility at Qom.
But the [...]
MIDEAST: Lessons from the Karine A -Déjà Vu All Over Again
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Marsha B. Cohen
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (IPS) – As Israeli Defence Forces munitions experts sorted through 300 tonnes of weapons found on a German-owned, Cypriot-operated cargo ship flying the Antiguan flag, Israeli politicians were sifting through the various talking points that could be offloaded from the vessel. [...]
POLITICS: On Nuke Disarmament, It’s Still ”You First”
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31 (IPS) – Is the ongoing controversy over Iran’s nuclear programme helping to advance the United Nations’ agenda on nuclear disarmament? To a number of diplomats and experts who have participated in past U.N. discussions on the spread of nuclear weapons, the [...]
Iran suicide attack fuels tensions with Pakistan
Global Geopolitics Net Sites
A deadly suicide bomb attack in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, near the Pakistan border, has triggered another round of the blame game with Pakistan, the alleged mastermind and villain. The attack last Sunday killed 42 people, including five commanders of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard.
The incident makes it even more difficult for [...]
SUICIDE BLASTS IN IRANIAN BALOCHISTAN KILL 6 SENIOR OFFICERS OF RG
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR–PAPER NO. 570
Global Geopolitics Net Sites
B. Raman
According to the Iranian State TV, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, the national Deputy Commander of the ground force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (RG), the Guards’ chief provincial commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, and four other senior officers of the RG were among 31 persons killed [...]
US-IRAN: Congress Begins Pressing Sanctions Legislation
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (IPS) – As the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama prepares for a critical series of talks about the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme, Congress has begun moving long-pending legislation to impose new unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
In just the past few [...]
U.S.: Public Sceptical and Hawkish on Iran
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (IPS) – Despite strong support for diplomatic engagement with Iran, most U.S. citizens believe such efforts will ultimately fail and that Washington should be prepared to use military force to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, according to a new poll released here [...]
POLITICS: Leaked Iran Paper Based on Intel that Split IAEA
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (IPS) – Excerpts of the internal draft report by the staff of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published online last week show that the report’s claims about Iranian work on a nuclear weapon is based almost entirely on intelligence documents which [...]
IRAN: Non-Western Big Powers Enjoy Growing Influence
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Helena Cobban*
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (IPS) – Thursday’s seven-party talks in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear programme resulted in a breakthrough agreement on Russian enrichment of materials Tehran needs for nuclear-medical work.
Proponents say that step considerably reduces western fears that Tehran was heading for nuclear weapons, and [...]
POLITICS: New Doubt Cast on U.S. Claim Qom Plant is Illicit
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (IPS) – An Iranian assertion that construction on its second enrichment facility began only last year and further analysis of satellite photos of the site have cast fresh doubts on the Barack Obama administration’s charge that the construction of the plant near [...]
IRAN: New Poll Finds Strong Domestic Support for Regime
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Sep 19 (IPS) – Despite persistent mass demonstrations protesting June’s disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a new survey of Iranian public opinion released here Saturday suggests majority domestic support for both him and the country’s basic governing institutions.
Four out of five of the 1,003 [...]
POLITICS: Nuclear Agency Demanding Iranian Missile Blueprints
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Gareth Porter*
VIENNA, Sep 19 (IPS) – Iran stopped meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency last year over Western allegations of covert Iranian nuclear weapons work because the nuclear agency was demanding access to the designs for its Shahab-3 missile and other secret military data, according to both [...]
POLITICS: IAEA Conceals Evidence Iran Documents Were Forged
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Sep 14 (IPS) – The International Atomic Energy Agency says its present objective regarding Iran is to try to determine whether the intelligence documents purportedly showing a covert Iranian nuclear weapons programme from 2001 to 2003 are authentic or not. The problem, according to its reports, [...]
