Iran

NOVANEWS US Defense Secretary: Reform movement learning from Tunisia, Egypt; says ‘we should try to take every step to try to support effort’ Revolution in Iran appears to be a matter of time, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta predicted on Tuesday, saying the Iranian reform movement was learning from revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. Panetta, a former CIA director who took over the Pentagon’s top job in July, was asked on the Charlie Rose television show whether the Arab Spring might spread to non-Arab Iran. Panetta responded: “Absolutely.” “I think we saw in evidence of that in the last election in Iran that there was a movement within Iran that raised those very same concerns that we’re seeing elsewhere,” Panetta said. “And I think in many ways, it’s a matter of time befor...

NOVANEWS   NYT Iran’s supreme leader admonished the West and Israel on Wednesday not to seek advantage from the antigovernment uprisings convulsing the Arab Muslim world, delivering the warning in a nationally broadcast speech that appeared to reflect new unease in Tehran over the course of events among its strategic neighbors, particularly Syria. The speech by the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, given at Tehran University to commemorate Id al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday, was officially described in Iran’s state-run press as a respectful tribute to the revolutionary movements that have reawakened Muslim populations to “their genuine Islamic identity.”        But the speech included a cautionary caveat that suggested Iranian leaders are worried about the possibility of outcomes t...

NOVANEWS ed note–and the war chorus from the Jewish quarter continues with more demands that America go to war for the benefit of the Jewish state.   Reuters Israel would not be able to halt Iran’s reported quest for atomic weapons with a single strike, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday. Israel and the West suspect Iran is trying to use its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons, a charge denied by Tehran which says it wants to generate electricity. Both Israel and the United States have hinted they might consider taking military action as a last resort to stop Iran getting the bomb. The defense official, who in line with Israeli army guidelines declined to be identified, mentioned Iran during a review of the security situation in the Middle East in a briefing to...

NOVANEWS Majid Jamali-Fashi pleaded guilty to murdering Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in January 2010, the first of several attacks on Iranian scientists. An Iranian accused (convicted) of assassinating a scientist on behalf of Israel has been sentenced to death, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported on Sunday. Majid Jamali-Fashi had pleaded guilty to murdering Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in January 2010, the first of several attacks on scientists which Iran said were the work of enemies that wished to stop it developing nuclear technology. The prosecution said Jamali-Fashi had travelled to Israel to receive training from the Mossad intelligence agency, and had been paid €120,000 for the assassination. IRNA quoted a judiciary spokesman as saying he had been condemned to death for “waging war aga...

NOVANEWS Ali Akbar Salihi says vacuum would have ‘unpredictable impact’ on region; says Syria, Yemen governments should answer to peoples’ demands. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salihi warned Saturday of a political vacuum in Syria if the regime was toppled, but asserted that the Syrian government should meet the legitimate demands of its people. “A vacuum in the Syrian regime would have an unpredictable impact for the region and its neighbors,” Salihi was quoted by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA)as saying. The Iranian official was referring to calls by the United States and European leaders for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. Salihi, whose country is a main backer of the Syrian regime, asserted that the “government should answer to the demands of its people, b...

NOVANEWS Iranian state prosecutor rejects reports that the case of the U.S. hikers had been politicized by Iran’s judicial system. Iran’s state prosecutor on Saturday defended the sentences handed to two Americans who were convicted of illegal entry and espionage. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were each given eight-year jail terms – three years for entering Iran illegally and five years for spying. They were arrested along with a third U.S. citizen, Sarah Shourd, in July 2009 when they crossed the unmarked border from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The trio said they had been hiking in the area and denied the charges brought against them. “The detained Americans had been charged (with espionage), their charges were thoroughly investigated and proven and eventually convicted by court,” Gholam-H...

NOVANEWS Speaking after al-Quds day Friday prayers Iranian President says Palestinian state only first step in liberation, no room for Israel in region after formation of a Palestinian state Ed note–this is a story from Ynet, Israel’s biggest online newspaper. It repeats the constantly misquoted/mistranslated “Israel should be wiped off the map” nonsense that the Jewish community and their lick-spittle supporters have been braying about now for years. It is not the position of this editor or this website that these quotations should be attributed to Ahmadinejhad, an honorable man, however we are running the story nonetheless because the rest of his comments are, in our opinion, 100% correct. The creation of a universally-recognized Palestinian state would be just a first step towards d...

NOVANEWS Iranian President calls Assad’s regime to engage in dialogue with Syrian people, stop violence, reach understanding so as to avoid western intervention in favor of ‘Zionist entity’ Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Damascus regime to engage in dialogue with the Syrian people in order to put a stop to the violence and reach an understanding regarding the political reforms in the country, Lebanese Al-Manar television reported on Thrusday. “The people and government of Syria must come together to reach an understanding,” he told the station, which is run by the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah movement. The online website “Now Lebanon” quoted Ahmadinejad’s interview in Al-Manar, saying that the Iranian president claimed the violence in Syria only “serves Zionist...

NOVANEWS   Washington, DC – The Iran Policy Committee, an organization dedicated to gaining U.S. support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq, organized an event on Thursday with former U.S. officials calling for the MEK to be removed from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. While the panelists argued that the MEK is not a terrorist organization, they said the group’s “hands were tied” by the terrorist designation and suggested that delisting the group would enable it to commit attacks within Iran. Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney said an MEK delisting should be part of a campaign of “proactive actions” against Tehran. The MEK, he said, is the only “credible overt political-military counterforce to the Iranian regime.” “We need a very active tit for tat policy,” said McInern...

NOVANEWS   Ed note–despite this, the fact that Iran is abiding by internationa law, we will hear the same shrill, shrieking chorus from Israel and her supporters that Iran is an outlaw nation, all the while that Israel and her WMD program at Dimona remains untouched and unmentioned. Tehran – Iran has allowed a team of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its nuclear sites, the country’s IAEA envoy said Tuesday. Ali-Asghar Soltanieh told the Fars news agency that the IAEA team, led by nuclear safeguards division head Herman Nackaerts, visited several Iranian nuclear sites last week. They included the Bushehr power plant, the uranium conversion and enrichment sites of Isfahan and Natanz, the new enrichment site of Fordo and the heavy water research facility in Ar...