Category: Iran

Turkey names 2014 as year of Iran

TEHRAN — Turkey has accepted Iran’s proposal for naming 2014 as the year of Iran in the country.

The proposal was approved by the Turkish Delegation in the first meeting of the Standing Committee for Cultural Relations of Iran and Turkey at the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) in Tehran on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by the Turkish delegation headed by Director of the International Department of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism Bülent Arasli and the Iranian delegation headed by deputy for International Affairs of the organization Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Imanipur.

Iran also asked Turkey to turn the residence of Imam Khomeini in Turkey into a museum and cultural monument and the Turkish parties promised to pursue it.

The Iranian delegates also asked for support by Turkish cultural officials for dedicating an independent building for teaching Persian language in Ankara.

Boosting relations between the Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature and the Turkish Language Association, stabilizing the number of tourists in the two countries and holding joint tours are other suggestions proposed by Iran.

The two parties also signed an agreement during their second meeting on Thursday morning to boost cultural ties between the two countries.

On Thursday morning, Iran’s Deputy Culture Minister for Cinematic Affairs Javad Shamaqdari met his Turkish counterpart Okan Yüce.

At the meeting, Yüce spoke about changes that have occurred in the Turkish cinema since 2004 and said that he is eager to know more about Iranian cinema.

Afterward, Shamaqdari welcomed Turkish cultural officials and pointed to the cultural communalities between the two countries.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has aired some Turkish TV series with religious and spiritual themes, Shamaqdari mentioned at the event.

He proposed the formation of a research committee to prepare an educational proposal to increase the content and strengthen the structure of religious cinema in two countries.

He also suggested further joint film projects and introducing the cinema of each of the two countries into the other.

SB/YAW

END

via Turkey names 2014 as year of Iran – Tehran Times.

December 24, 2011
Iranian pastor told to recant or die

ISTANBUL (BP) — A pastor in Iran sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith may have to wait another year in prison for a ruling on whether the sentence will be upheld, according to sources.

Yousef (also spelled Youcef) Nadarkhani, sentenced to death after a court of appeals in Rasht, Iran, found him guilty of leaving Islam, has been in prison since October 2009, yet his lawyers said they were told to not expect any movement on his case for another year.

“The news we have about Yousef is not official, but that’s what the lawyers are saying,” a member of the Church of Iran who requested anonymity told Compass. “The lawyers speak to the judges’ secretaries and hear things. Rasht is not a big city, so it is easy to know what is happening.”

The head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, has reportedly ordered the presiding judge over the trial in Rasht to do nothing for one year.

The court in Rasht, 150 miles northwest of Tehran, was expected to pronounce a verdict on Nadarkhani’s appeal in October. Instead of pronouncing a verdict, the court sent the Christian’s case to the nation’s Islamic authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, to make a ruling. Sources said the court’s long silence bodes ill.

Authorities have also continued to pressure Nadarkhani to recant his faith while in prison. In September they gave him Islamic literature aimed at discrediting the Bible, according to sources, and instructed him to read it. The court reportedly has been told to use whatever means necessary to compel Nadarkhani to recant his faith.

The anonymous Christian who spoke to Compass said he didn’t believe that Nadarkhani would be executed soon, but he said authorities were tense about his case, indicating that nothing was certain.

Some Iranian Christians have said that, in the face of international outrage over the case, the government would announce a verdict near the Christmas holidays so that it would receive less notice.

Christian leaders in Iran have called for prayer for their leaders and congregations over the Christmas and New Year period, as there are fears that pressures on churches may intensify in the coming days, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC).

“These fears stem partly from the waves of arrests last Christmas and New Year, and also the previous year, in which several dozen believers were detained,” MEC reported in a press statement. “Two of those arrested in late December 2010, Farshid and Noorallah, remain in prison.”

Farshid Fathi, 32, has been in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran since Dec. 26, 2010. He is married and has two young children. Noorollah Qabitizade, a Christian convert and a house church leader held in Ahwaz in southwestern Iran, has been in prison since Christmas Eve of last year. Between December of last year and February, authorities arrested scores of Christians. All have been released, except for Qabitizade and Fathi.

Authorities arrested Nadarkhani in his home city of Rasht in Oct. 2009 on charges that he questioned obligatory religion classes in Iranian schools. After finding him guilty of apostasy, the court of appeals in Rasht in November 2010 issued a written confirmation of his charges and death sentence.

At an appeal hearing in June this year, the Supreme Court of Iran upheld Nadarkhani’s sentence but asked the court in Rasht to determine if he was a practicing Muslim before his conversion. The court declared that Nadarkhani was not a practicing Muslim before his conversion, but that he was still guilty of apostasy due to his Muslim ancestry.

The Supreme Court had also determined that his death sentence could be annulled if he recanted his faith. Nadarkhani refused to do so. His final appeal hearings ended on Sept. 28, and the court was expected to make its final decision two weeks from the final hearing.

Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, also faces charges for “actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime,” due to his human rights activities.

In addition, this month Iranian authorities sentenced Alireza Seyedian to six years imprisonment for being baptized in Turkey and uploading a video of his baptism to the Internet, according to Mohabat News. Seyedian is another member of the Church of Iran, and Dadkhah is also representing him. As Christians in Iran are held hostage to the government’s political whims, some Iranian Christians say the key to their freedom is continued pressure from the international community.

–30–

Compass Direct News, based in Santa Ana, Calif., focuses on Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Used by permission.

via Baptist Press – UPDATE: Iranian pastor told to recant or die – News with a Christian Perspective.

December 23, 2011
Iran Threatens To Send ‘OIL’ To $200 A Barrel

War in the Economic Jugular Vein of the World

By Steve Christ

Are you ready for ‘OIL’ to skyrocket to $200 a barrel?

Iran is!

And, they’re prepared to play their trump card to send it there.

Faced with a rash of mysterious explosions, military drones caught flying overhead, and renewed promises to end their nuclear ambitions, the Iranians are threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz — otherwise known as “the economic jugular vein of the world” — again.

As Iranian lawmaker Parviz Sarvari said yesterday, “Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.”

The announcement came just weeks after Iran’s energy minister told Al Jazeera television that Tehran was prepared to use oil as a political tool in any “conflict over its nuclear program.”

Given Iran’s dominance over this bottleneck for oil exports from the Persian Gulf, this is a promise they can likely keep…

Today’s price of $100 a barrel doesn’t even come close to pricing in the geopolitical calamity closing the Persian Gulf would present.

Just 34 miles wide, thirteen tankers carrying 15.5 million barrels of crude oil pass through the Strait each day, making it one of the world’s most important waterways.

In all, 33% of the oil shipped via tankers passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait is so vital to the world economy, its closure would be considered an act of war that only the U.S. Navy has the power to fix…

www.wealthdaily.com, December 13th, 2011

December 18, 2011
Turkey, Egypt in Joint Naval Exercises

Turkey and Egypt are both concerned over the Iranian threat – and are conducting a joint military exercise to show their solidarity.

By David Lev

Turkish vessel (right) in an exercise U.S. Navy

Egyptian navy ships were on their way to the waters off Turkey Thursday afternoon, where they will rendezvous with Turkish navy vessels for a joint exercise. Egypt’s top naval commander, Muhav Mamish, said in an interview that the the exercise is “not directed against any specific country, and is designed to strengthen ties and exchange information between Turkey and Egypt.” The name of the exercise, Voice of Israel radio reported, was “Sea of Friendship.”

Israeli officials speculated that the exercise was not necessarily aimed at Israel, but against Iran, which has both Turkey and Egypt worried. Turkey, long a rival with Iran for leadership of the Islamic world, is concerned over recent Iranian threats against it. In recent weeks, Iranian officials have threatened Turkey with attack if the U.S. or Israel attempt to attack its nuclear facilities. Iran, the officials said, would attack the NATO missile shield.

A report Sunday, for example, quoted Hussein Ibrahim, the vice president of the Iranian parliamentary national security and foreign policy panel, as saying that “it is Iran’s natural right to target the missile defense shield system in Turkey in case of an attack, and we will definitely resort to that.” Several days earlier, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division, said that “should we [Iran] be threatened, we will target NATO’s missile defense shield in Turkey and then hit our next targets.”

Other Iranian officials have made similar statements in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi and questioned him on the statements, but Salehi said that the comments did not represent Iranian policy, but the “personal opinions” of officials.

Meanwhile, say analysts, the Egyptian military is seeking friends outside the Iran/Islamic fundamentalist orbit, considering that the country is likely to be run by those groups in the near future. Thursday was the second day of the second round of voting in Egypt’s first democratic election in decades, and once again, the Islamist parties – the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist al-Nour party – are said to be doing very well, according to informal polls by Egyptian and foreign media. This round of voting is taking place in areas such as Giza, Luxor and Aswan, which in the past have favored conservative Islamic candidates in local elections. Egyptian military leaders believe that there is a close connection between the Islamists and Iran, and are thus seeking to improve their ties with Turkey, the only other country in the region they believe can take on Iran politically.

via Turkey, Egypt in Joint Naval Exercises – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

December 16, 2011
Iran rejects missile shield threat against Turkey

Iran dismissed intimidating remarks by its own officials against Turkey saying Tehran would target NATO’s missile shield in its neighbour if threatened, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

“We reject those views completely,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salihi told Anatolia in an interview, adding that those who had made the irresponsible statements had been warned.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s official stance on Turkey is based on deep brotherhood and friendship,” he said, adding that only Iran’s supreme leader, president and foreign minister was able to pronounce on Iran’s official attitude on international matters and foreign policy.

“Other statements are considered personal views,” he said.

In November, the commander of the aerospace division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tehran would target NATO’s missile shield in neighbouring Turkey’s southern Malatya province if it were threatened by military action.

“We are prepared to first target the NATO defence missile shield in Turkey if we are threatened. And then we’ll move on to other targets,” Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

Earlier this month, an Iranian member of parliament, Hussein Ibrahimi said it was Iran’s “right” to hit the missile shield. “Iran will definitely do that,” Turkish media quoted Ibrahimi as telling Iranian daily Sharq.

Turkey in December conveyed its concern about the remarks of the Iranian commander to Salihi.

Turkey last year has agreed to host an early warning radar system in its southeast as part of NATO’s shield which the United States says is aimed at thwarting missile threats from the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Turkish officials insist that the shield targets no specific country.

via Iran rejects missile shield threat against Turkey: FM | Missiles & Bombs News at DefenseTalk.

December 16, 2011
Newt’s iffy claim: Iran hides nukes under mosques

Explosive charge appears to be pure speculation

BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT

Is Iran hiding nuclear weapons facilities under mosques?

Newt Gingrich says yes – but experts say there is no evidence to back up the assertion.

Gingrich made the claim at a debate with Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire on Monday. Here, via Michael Crowley, is the key moment:

“They have huge underground facilities. Some of the underground facilities are under mosques,” Gingrich said. “Some of them are in cities. The idea that you’re going to wage a bombing campaign that accurately takes out all the Iranian nuclear program I think is a fantasy.”

That’s an extremely significant charge, one made by a man who now has a real shot at being the next president of the United States.

An extensive search of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports on Iran found no mentions of the terms “mosque” or “holy site.” We do know that some of Iran’s nuclear facilities are underground; but I found no media mentions of them being under mosques.

(Also worth noting: it’s not a given that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, rather than nuclear power. The question of Iran’s intentions is complex and remains unresolved.)

“There’s no evidence [for that],” said David Albright, an expert on Iran’s nuclear program and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, when asked about the mosques issue. “I don’t know where Gingrich gets this, but it sounds like he is just repeating rumors.”

I also asked Ken Pollack, a Mideast specialist at the Brookings Institution, if he has heard of anything like Gingrich’s mosques claim.

“Nope,” Pollack said in an email. “Never heard that they have underground facilities beneath mosques. They do have extensive tunnels at some sites, and I guess some of those tunnels may run under mosques, but I have never heard that they purposely built them under mosques as this seems to suggest.”

Gingrich’s spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about his source for the claim.

It’s also at least a bit ironic that Gingrich made the iffy mosques assertion after specifically questioning the ability of the CIA to determine what the Iranians are doing.

“This idea that somehow we have magically accurate intelligence … is baloney,” he said.

Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustinMore Justin Elliott

www.salon.com, 14 Decmeber 20011

December 15, 2011