Iran – News Stories About Iran - Page 113

May 1, 2007 10:05 PM CDT

Middle East Solution? Ignore It

The only option: "backward societies must be left alone"

(Newser) - As experts scramble to respond to escalating crises in the Middle East, think-tanker Edward Luttwack has a novel solution—leave 'em be. The strategic implications of the Arab-Israeli crisis ended with the Cold War, he argues, and local regimes don't control oil supplies—oil companies do.

Condi Says She'll
Talk to Iran

Apr 30, 2007 6:45 AM CDT

Condi Says She'll Talk to Iran

Meeting at Iraq conference will be first between US and Iran since 2004

(Newser) - Iran will be attending next week's regional conference on Iraq, the Times reports, offering the first sitdown between the Axis of Evil power and the U.S. in three years. Condoleezza Rice yesterday reiterated accusations that Iran is stirring insurgent violence in Iraq, but also hinted that the meeting in...

Tehran Rescue Caper Was Screen Gem

Apr 24, 2007 8:44 AM CDT

Tehran Rescue Caper Was Screen Gem

How a fake movie saved Americans trapped in revolutionary Iran

(Newser) - Wired looks back at one of the most daring (and cinematic) CIA operations ever declassified: the smuggling home of six American hostages during the 1980 Iranian revolution. With the Canadian government's help, agent Tony Mendez painstakingly crafted the elaborate guise of a Canadian sci-fi film crew scouting locations; eventually, the...

Iran Frees Murderous
Vice Squad

Apr 19, 2007 4:12 PM CDT

Iran Frees Murderous Vice Squad

Convictions overturned for hardliners who killed "morally corrupt" citizens

(Newser) - Iran's Supreme Court has exonerated a group of Islamic hardliners earlier convicted of the vigilante killing of Iranians they considered "morally corrupt," the Times reports. Six members of the Basiji force, an elite paramilitary group, were originally convicted of murdering five people, including an engaged couple walking...

Iran Raises Nuclear Stakes

Apr 10, 2007 6:16 AM CDT

Iran Raises Nuclear Stakes

'Can Produce Uranium on Industrial Scale'

(Newser) - Iran claims to have scaled up its nuclear capability by enriching uranium "on an industrial scale, " the Guardian reports, in defiance of U.S. and U.N. pressure to dimantle the program. The announcement from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sure to heighten conflict with the White House and...

UK About-Face On Sailors Selling Stories

Apr 10, 2007 6:14 AM CDT

UK About-Face On Sailors Selling Stories

Public outcry leads to ban on further embarrassing interviews

(Newser) - The British Ministry of Defense bowed to public opinion last night and banned further media deals for the sailors and marines released from captivity in Iran. The decision to let the detainees sell their stories had "not reached a satisfactory outcome," the defense secretary said.

Freed 15 Deals Spur Outrage

Apr 9, 2007 8:55 AM CDT

Freed 15 Deals Spur Outrage

Officials defend go-ahead to cash in

(Newser) - Britain’s military chiefs are under fire for allowing 15 British sailors and Royal Marines released by Iran to sell their stories. Faye Turney has already closed a deal for almost $200,000, and at least two others are considering offers. The families of British servicemen killed and wounded in...

Resisting Captors Was "Not an Option"

Apr 6, 2007 11:01 AM CDT

Resisting Captors Was "Not an Option"

Brit sailors say they were threatened, psychologically tortured

(Newser) - Britain's freed sailors say they were blindfolded, psychologically tortured, and isolated from each other during their captivity in Iran. They were lined up while weapons were cocked, and told that if they did not say they were in Iranian waters when they were caught, they would face seven years in...

Britons Ask: Were Captives Too Cozy With Iranians?

Apr 6, 2007 7:04 AM CDT

Britons Ask: Were Captives Too Cozy With Iranians?

Co-operation called, "Bloody Shambles"

(Newser) - As the euphoria over the homecoming of the 15 British captives subsides, some Britons are charging that the sailors and marines went overboard in co-operating with their captors. Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Gray tells London’s Daily Mail: "In my days you would have got name, rank and serial...

Was There
a Deal with Iran?

Apr 5, 2007 7:54 AM CDT

Was There a Deal with Iran?

Iranian prisoner in Iraq was freed before British sailors were

(Newser) - Officials deny that concessions were made to Iran for the release of the captured British sailors, but the Times speculates that there may have been a secret deal. An Iranian diplomat held in Iraq for eight weeks was freed the day before the British prisoners were. Also, American officials said...

British Sailors Come Home

Apr 5, 2007 7:43 AM CDT

British Sailors Come Home

(Newser) - The fifteen British sailors captured by Iran are back in the UK. As soon as the British Airways jet touched down as Heathrow, Blair traded his measured diplomatic tone for harsher words, warning the "elements of the Iranian regime" were still arming insurgents inside Iraq."

Wooing Syria
Is Tougher Than Pelosi Thinks

Apr 4, 2007 1:45 PM CDT

Wooing Syria Is Tougher Than Pelosi Thinks

Experts laud diplomatic offensive, warn of potential failure

(Newser) - The Wall Street Journal puts Nancy Pelosi's high profile visit to Damascus in perspective in a piece outlining the vexing complexity of relations between Syria and the U.S. A number of Pentagon and State Dept. counterterrorism officials support the congressional effort to moderate the President's hard line on Syria,...

IRAN TO RELEASE SAILORS

Apr 4, 2007 9:04 AM CDT

IRAN TO RELEASE SAILORS

(Newser) - The 15 captured British sailors are to be released immediately, says Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The surprise announcement came toward the end of an hour-long press conference, in which Ahmadinejad berated the British government for using the situation to create "media hype." He maintains that the Brits invaded...

Brit Standoff Shows Deeply Divided Iran

Apr 4, 2007 7:26 AM CDT

Brit Standoff Shows Deeply Divided Iran

Radicals and moderates fight it out, tacitly, over captured sailors

(Newser) - An internal squabble between Iran's radical president and more moderate officials is in evidence in the crisis over the captive British marines and sailors. President Ahmadinejad and his Revolutionary Guards are pushing for a trial. Cooler heads, including Ali Larijani, the diplomat who offered bilateral negotiations yesterday, are pushing back,...

Iranians, Brits Move Toward Talks

Apr 3, 2007 6:56 AM CDT

Iranians, Brits Move Toward Talks

Top diplomat lays out roadmap for brokering sailors' release

(Newser) - Iran is ready to negotiate freeing its 15 British captives, according to the country's top diplomat. In a cryptic TV interview, Ali Larijani suggested the marines and sailors could be released if the Brits apologized and stopped putting international pressure on Tehran. "We are not interested in the issue...

Crisis Shows Isolated Iran

Apr 2, 2007 8:09 AM CDT

Crisis Shows Isolated Iran

Tehran isolated - tries to push back

(Newser) - Iran’s abduction of the British sailors and its subsequent belligerence may actually be evidence that international sanctions against the rogue nation are working. Fareed Zakaria argues in Newsweek that Iran’s posturing reflects its growing isolation, after both Russia and China backed U.N. condemnation of its nuclear program....

U.N.'s Worthless If It Can't Get Tough on Iran

Mar 30, 2007 1:02 PM CDT

U.N.'s Worthless If It Can't Get Tough on Iran

U.N. Lawyers outraged at anemic repsonse to hostage-taking

(Newser) - Iran's taking hostages, and the the United Nations is merely "gravely concerned"? Two U.N. lawyers, writing in the LA Times, are disgusted. "The international community's failure to show immediate outrage at Iran's action is deafening," say David Rivkin and Lee Casey. "Ancient legal principles...

They're Lucky They're Not in Guantánamo

Mar 30, 2007 11:57 AM CDT

They're Lucky They're Not in Guantánamo

Novelist notes British captives have it easy, as detainees go

(Newser) - Iran's British captives may be embarrassed and anxious, but they appear to be better off than many detainees in American and British hands, observes novelist Ronan Bennett. "They have not been hung from a forklift truck and photographed for the amusement of their captors. They have not had electrodes...

British Captives
Standoff Stiffens

Mar 30, 2007 7:17 AM CDT

British Captives Standoff Stiffens

Experts say there is no clear border between Iran and Iraqi waters

(Newser) - London and Tehran and ratcheted up the rhetoric over the 15 British soldiers being held captive in Iran yesterday, the LA Times reports: Britain got the UN Security Council to issue a statement of "grave concern," while Tehran released more video of sailors professing guilt and issued charts...

Saudi King Calls Iraq War Illegal

Mar 29, 2007 8:53 AM CDT

Saudi King Calls Iraq War Illegal

Latest evidence of breach with ally

(Newser) - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia fired a warning shot at the Bush administration yesterday, calling Iraq “an illegal foreign occupation” and urging Arab leaders to unite to prevent U.S. domination of the region. The Saudis "are telling the U.S. they need to listen to their...