Iran’s recent successful launch of a second satellite into orbit has drawn considerable attention around the world. As in the past, Iran’s announcement of the launch of its domestically built satellite into space received mixed reactions in the West. Some mainstream U.S. media treated the announcement with skepticism and ridicule. “Before you cancel that European vacation or start building a bomb shelter, it’s worth taking Iran’s boasts with a grain of salt,” one commentator wrotein Wired. “While Iran has cooked up some indigenous weaponry over the years, its desire to puff out its chest and pronounce immunity from the effects of international sanctions has led to some absurd exaggerations and outright lies.”
The Persian Gulf: an “Aquatic Tinderbox”
Due to limited communication between them, a misunderstanding between the navies of Iran and the West could turn into an international incident. Russ Wellen at the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.
Shifting Targets: From Iran to Libya and Syria (Part 1)
Invading Libya is about the oil, Syria — eliminating the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean and weakening Hizbollah.
Iran: Poetry Can’t Be Arrested
One Saturday afternoon while walking down Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, I gave into the urge to stop people at random and ask them what came to their minds when I mentioned Iran. Here are some of their responses: Islamic government, human rights violations, a nuclear threat, sponsors of terrorism, Holocaust deniers, women in veils, anti-Semites, Khomeini’s fatwa on Salman Rushdie, enemies of Israel and the West, and the 1979 hostage crisis. Only one person had anything positive to say, and it had something to do with a great kebab dish he had had at a Persian restaurant on Westwood Boulevard.
Has Iran’s President Ahmadinejad Become a Sympathetic Figure?
Is Supreme Leader Khameini’s assertion of his will over President Ahmadinejad the step back that it seems for Iran?
Iran’s Turmoil at the Top
There is a struggle between Ahmadinejad and the clerics around Khamenei. Although it may play out in arguments over obscure religious issues — one critic of the president accused him of recruiting an army of genies – at its heart the fight is over political and economic power: who wields it and to what purpose? Some of the players, like the president and the supreme leader, perform in the spotlight. Others, like the powerful Revolutionary Guard and an increasingly restive population hammered by economic difficulties, operate in the wings.
Israel’s 1981 Osirak Attack Poor Precedent for Attacking Iran
Ineffective in halting Iraq’s nuclear-weapons program, Israel’s attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor can’t be used as a precedent for a military strike to halt Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program.
Israel and Iran: Partners in Plausible Nuclear Deniability
Those who oppose attacking Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities would better advance their cause by admitting Iran’s likely intention to at least field the capacity to, if not actually build, nuclear weapons.
Israel’s Atonal September Song
If the United Nations grants Palestine’s request for statehood, Israel may take it out on Iran.
Cakewalk to (Baghdad) Tehran
Many of the same people who led the push for regime-change in Baghdad now have their sights set on Tehran.