Iran

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US Engages Iran on Iraqi Security
US Engages Iran on Iraqi Security

US Engages Iran on Iraqi Security

Ambassadors to meet in Baghdad; nuclear program won't be on the table

(Newser) - The US will sit down with Iran to enlist its aid in quelling violence in Iraq as early as next week, reports the Washington Post. US ambassador Ryan Crocker will meet with his Iranian counterparts in Baghdad to encourage the country, frequently accused of sponsoring sectarian violence in neighboring Iraq,...

Iranians Embrace Underground Fashion Shows

Stylish rebels flout fundamentalism

(Newser) - Under the nose of Iran's fundamentalist Islamic government, Western standards and customs are gaining ground. From satellite dishes to hip-hop parties to screenings of banned films, temptations abound. The LA Times goes behind the scenes of a fashion show in Tehran, where women and men mix freely and models flash...

Iranian, U.S. Diplomats Meet Briefly

Three-minute discussion focuses on Iraq, hints at Bush administration policy shift

(Newser) - It didn't involve the American Secretary of State or the Iranian foreign minister, but a brief meeting of high-level diplomats today in Egypt signals a thaw in relations between the countries, the International Herald Tribune reports. U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said the three-minute conversation concerned the situation...

Condi Sits Down With Syria
Condi Sits Down With Syria

Condi Sits Down With Syria

Rice talks with Syrian Foreign Minister about border security

(Newser) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conferred with her Syrian counterpart Thursday in an unexpected half hour sit-down that ended a two-year cold-shoulder between the Bush administration and a state it considers a sponsor of terrorism. Rice asked asked Sryia's help in restricting the flow of foreign fighters across the Syrian...

Presidential Peck Sets Off Iranian Sex Scandal

A kiss on the hand lands Ahmadinejad in hot water with hard-liners

(Newser) - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at the center of an unlikely sex scandal today, after being caught on camera kissing the hand—even if it was gloved—of a retired schoolteacher. Ahmadinejad's sexy faux pas, at a ceremony honoring the country's teachers, is a violation of Shariah law, hard-liners say.

Some Mahdis Going Freelance
Some Mahdis Going Freelance

Some Mahdis Going Freelance

What's worse than Moqtada al-Sadr? The Mahdi Army ignoring him

(Newser) - The Madhi Army is letting loose. Officially locked down by leader Moqtada al-Sadr during the troop surge, renegade Mahdis are unleashing a wave of random violence on once-peaceful areas of central and southern Iraq, Newseek reports. That worries even al-Sadr's commanders, who are now seeking U.S. help to control...

Middle East Solution? Ignore It
Middle East Solution? Ignore It

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
Condi Says She'll
Talk to Iran

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
Tehran Rescue Caper Was Screen Gem

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
Iran Frees Murderous
Vice Squad

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
Iran Raises Nuclear Stakes

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

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
Freed 15 Deals Spur Outrage

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"

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?

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?
Was There
a Deal with Iran?

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
British Sailors Come Home

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

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
IRAN TO RELEASE SAILORS

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

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,...

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