IRAN: Is Obama administration dissing the 'green' opposition movement?

As the United States attempts to grapple with Iran over its nuclear program, some worry that it will sacrifice the Islamic Republic's grass-roots opposition movement.

Karim Sadjadpour is an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. He's regularly hobnobbing with Beltway policymakers and advisors as well as those within the kaleidoscope of think tanks issuing reams of recommendations for them.

He says that opinion in Washington is mixed. Though he himself believes that Iran's opposition movement remains a force to be reckoned with, some disagree. 

"There are certainly analysts in Washington, including within some branches of the U.S. government, who believe that Iran’s opposition movement is either dead or does not deserve to be taken seriously," he said. 

But, he said, "in numerous conversations with the key formulators of Iran policy in the Obama administration I’ve never found them to be dismissive or unsympathetic towards the green movement."

Still, for a whole bunch of reasons, the administration is also hedging its bets. 

"They feel they can’t put all their eggs in the basket of the opposition," he said.

IRAN: Scholarship honoring slain protester Neda Agha-Soltan irks Iranian officials

Iranian officials are up in arms over a decision by The Queen's College at the University of Oxford in Britain to establish a scholarship fund in memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 27-year-old Iranian woman whose videotaped June 20 death at the hands of an unknown gunman made her an international symbol of Iran's opposition movement. 

Iran's Embassy in Britain formally condemned the decision.  In a letter to the school's chancellor, the embassy called it a ploy to attract students. 

"It was a politically-motivated move," said the letter, cited in an article on the website of Iran's Press TV. "It seems that Oxford University is involved in a criminal case, which is still under investigation by the Iranian police."

Iranian officials have suggested her death was caused by foreign operatives seeking to sully the image of the Islamic Republic.

IRAN: Defying supreme leader, reformist Khatami continues to question election

Iran's moderate former President Mohammad Khatami continued to question the results of the June 12 presidential election, defying the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said flatly last week that publicly voicing such doubts was illegal. 

"We should not decide for people," Khatami said in an a lengthy interview (in Persian) published today by Jamaran, a news website operated by the family of the Islamic Republic's revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"Nor should we restrict our people's choice and vote," he said. "Those who do not believe in the people's vote and even allow themselves to tamper with their votes or ignore them are unfamiliar with the Islamic Republic and revolution."

Khatami is a pillar of the country's battered reform movement and, along with presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, one of the three de facto figureheads of the opposition movement, which took to the streets again this week. 

All are under heavy surveillance and intense political pressure. Grass-roots opposition activists hunger for news and direction from the leaders, but have mostly had to make do without their guidance. 

IRAN: Prayer leader condemns protesters, shuns 'satanic' nuclear negotiations

Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line acolyte of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemned the protesters who took part in Wednesday's anti-government march, and attempted to create divisions within the ranks of the protest movement.

Khatami, not to be confused with the reformist former president of the same last name, simultaneously and contradictorily downplayed the protest, admonished opposition supporters and besought them to come back into the fold.

"Out of the hundreds and thousands of people who take to the streets, only one or two thousand shouted" opposition slogans, he said. "Americans must not be happy, as there is no red carpet waiting for them."

Then he shifted gears. 

"My brothers and sisters who have  fallen in the wrong and incorrect track, look who is supporting you," he said. 

"Those who were named by the late imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] as 'blasphemous' and their Islam was called 'Americanized Islam.' The miserable monarchists are supporting you. What is wrong if you follow the mainstream of the nation? Come back to the embrace of the nation and the nation will accept your repenting and remorse."

But, he added, "Of course the criminals’ cases are different and they should be punished." 

IRAN: In wake of protests, accusations and counter-accusations of media lies

 

It was supposed to be a public show of Iranian unity during day marking the 30-year anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by Islamic revolutionaries.

But not only did anti-government demonstrators, many of them dressed in green scarves and headbands,  hijack the state-sponsored event. They also managed to steal the media's attention media, much to the displeasure of the authorities, who blamed the Western media for distorting the facts.

On the other hand, Iran's official media, also appeared to play fast and loose with reality. 

IRAN: Protesters turn anti-American holiday on its head, videos show

Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Tehran today, hijacking what was supposed to be a state-sponsored celebration of the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the American Embassy by Islamist revolutionaries.  Videos posted on Facebook and YouTube show police forces clashing violently with the demonstrators, led mostly by young activists and students.

 Protesters in the above video, which was posted on YouTube, chant, "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great," an echo of the nighttime rooftop chants in protests that have taken place since the disputed presidential elections in June.

IRAN: Concern over fate of star student who spoke out to Khamenei [Updated]

 

It was near the end of a meeting Wednesday between Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a group of university students when the man who is Iran's highest political and spiritual authority asked if there were any other questions. 

He spotted a young man in the corner with his hand raised and called on him, asking him to go to the podium to speak through the public address system. 

What followed was an extraordinarily candid 20-minute speech by the student, later identified as national math Olympiad winner Mahmoud Vahidnia, in which he publicly and explicitly criticized Khamenei for the government's conduct in the unrest that followed Iran's June 12 elections. 

Vahidnia, a first-year student of mathematics at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University, spoke without notes.

[UPDATED at 4:30 a.m. PST on Nov. 1:  Despite reports of his arrest, reports surfaced that Vahidnia is okay. He told the Persian-language Alef.ir news agency in a report that appeared in the reformist newspaper Sarmayeh on Sunday that rumors of his detention were unfounded. 

He also said he made the speech on his own volition. "I had not coordinated with anyone," he told the news agency. "Even my family had no idea what I was going to say."

He added, "On the whole the meeting with the Supreme Leader was constructive."]

IRAN: Grim fates for prisoners with ties to foreigners

No mercy for those accused of trying to topple the Islamic Republic.

Britain on Thursday protested a four-year jail sentence apparently imposed on one of its senior employees at its embassy in Tehran accused of spying and fomenting violence. 

Hossein Rassam, 44, who served as chief political analyst at the British Embassy in Tehran was sentenced in a closed courtroom earlier this week, according to The Times of London. 

British authorities were informed of the sentence Tuesday and have summoned the Iranian ambassador while Britain’s ambassador to Iran has filed a complaint with Iranian authorities. The outcome of the trial has yet to be officially announced. 

In other developments, an Iranian human rights group is claiming that judiciary officials in Iran refuse to let a lawyer file an appeal on behalf of Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian American scholar sentenced to 15 years in jail for allegedly stirring up trouble during recent protests. 

And a vacation video (above) said to “prove the innocence” of three American hikers detained in Iran since the summer has been released online. 

Not all the news is grim. Iranian authorities recently released Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek reporter and Iranian Canadian who was arrested in the post-election unrest.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad, Turkish premier find common ground on nuclear issue

After months of diplomatic isolation following Iran's disputed presidential election and the subsequent violent government crackdown, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad appears to have found a friend in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan, who recently described Ahmedinejad as a "friend," arrived in Tehran on Tuesday with a delegation of more than 100 Turkish lawmakers and business leaders intent on strengthening trade relations between Turkey and Iran, which already amount to $11 billion annually. 

Iranian news agencies reported today that the two countries would sign a $4-billion deal giving Turkey access to Iran's rich natural gas fields.

IRAN: 'Dull' annual press fair turns into a chaotic protest, counter-protest

An ordinarily staid annual media expo in Tehran erupted into chaos this week as opposition supporters and pro-government militiamen squared off. 

Normally, the 16-year-old exhibition is meant to showcase Iranian press as well as international news outlets with a presence in the Islamic Republic. Last year, even the Los Angeles Times was invited to set up a booth.

Alas, no invite for us this year following the political and social tension unleashed by Iran's disputed June 12 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.