Dear Friend,
We are delighted to present you with the current issue of Iran Update, a publication of International Solidarity for Democratic Change in Iran (ISDCI). |
Specifics determined for Iran sanctions
The New York Times
NEIL MacFARQUHAR
8 June 2010
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations Security Council is expected to pass a new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program on Wednesday, with the council's permanent members agreeing to add 41 companies and one scientist to the blacklist. ... Read More | |
Iran moves to stifle dissent one year after popular uprising
Family Security Matters
Shahriar Kia
8 June 2010
...The anniversary of Khomeini's death, held on June 4 in the presence of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, turned into a showcase of the clerical regime's isolation, internal schism and disintegration.
Khamenei personally supervised the event, which was meant to be a show of force. What transpired, however, demonstrated the public's disdain toward the clerical regime.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the para-military Bassij and other repressive organs had made every attempt to intimidate and terrorize the public in a thinly-veiled attempt to overshadow the protests expected on June 10 to 20.
The turnout, however, was far less than the regime expected. While most of the crowd consisted of Bassijis and Revolutionary Guards, many in the audience chanted against Khamenei when he was giving his sermon. A number of them were arrested by the security forces.. ... Read More | |
Bomb concern makes Iran "special case" :IAEA head
Reuters
Sylvia Westall
7 June 2010
The U.N. atomic watchdog chief on Monday deflected an Arab push for Israel's nuclear work to receive the same scrutiny as Iran's, saying Tehran's failure to dispel fears over its intentions made it a "special case."...
"Iran is a special case because, among other things, of the existence of issues related to possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme," he said, opening a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors. ... Read More | |
Iraq protests to Iran over shelling in north
Miami Herald
Yahya Barzanji
8 June 2010
HAJ OMRAN, Iraq -- Iraq said Monday it has protested to Iran over what it called an improper use of force in the northern Kurdistan region, a reference to repeated shelling there.
Iranian troops have been shelling the region for at least 12 days in pursuit of Kurdish rebels, according to Lt. Saleh Ahmed of the Kurdish security forces. He said Iranian artillery killed a 14-year-old girl and wounded three villagers on May 30. Iranian troops with artillery and tanks crossed the Iraqi border last Thursday and began building an outpost and a road leading back into the Iranian side of the border, he said. ... Read More | |
Six charged in Iran satellite technology case: US
WASHINGTON - One American and five Iranians have been charged with helping Iran acquire satellite technology that allowed Tehran to launch a camera-equipped satellite in 2005, justice officials said Tuesday.
The six, only one of whom is in custody, are accused of creating a front company to circumvent restrictions on providing "satellite hardware and technology" to Iran.
"The indictment alleges that as a result of the conspiracy, an Iranian earth satellite equipped with a camera was launched into space in Russia on October 27, 2005," the Justice Department said in a statement.
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Web of shell companies veils trade by Iran's ships
The New York Times
JO BECKER
7 June 2010
On Jan. 24, 2009, a rusting freighter flying a Hong Kong flag dropped anchor in the South African port of Durban. The stop was not on the ship's customary route, and it stayed only an hour, just long enough to pick up its clandestine cargo: a Bladerunner 51 speedboat that could be armed with torpedoes and used as a fast-attack craft in the Persian Gulf.
The name painted on the ship's side as it left Durban and made for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas was the Diplomat, and its papers showed that it was owned by a company called Starry Shine Ltd. Both the name and provenance were of recent vintage. Six months earlier, the Diplomat had been the Iran Mufateh, part of a fleet owned by the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, known as Irisl. ... Read More | |
The UN must try Iran's 1988 murderers
The Guardian
Geoffrey Robertson
7 June 2010
The mass murderers of 1988 now hold power in Tehran. The world must make them face justice
This weekend marks the first anniversary of the death of democracy in Iran - the rigged election which the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared lost by reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Afterwards protesters were shot dead in the street and taken for torture to Tehran's notorious Evin prison; several have been hanged as mohareb - enemies of God. This intolerance of dissent should have come as no surprise: this is the same regime that got away with the murder of thousands of political prisoners - and has never been called to account. It happened in the summer of 1988, after the war with Iraq ended in a bitter truce. Iran's prisons were full of students sentenced for protesting against Ayatollah Khomeini in the early 1980s - Marxists and leftists of all varieties and supporters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation... They had been sorted by prison officials into groups of those who remained "steadfast" in their political beliefs or who were apostates. The regime decided they should be eradicated so they would not trouble the postwar government, and Khomeini issued a secret fatwa authorising their execution. ... Read More | |
Vanished photo shows angry Khamenei amid tensions following speech
The Los Angeles Times
7 June 2010
The extraordinary photo above -- posted to the website of Iran's hard-line Fars news agency but then quickly taken down -- shows supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at center with his hand raised, extremely angry after the conclusion of the June 4 ceremony commemorating the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.. ... Read More | |
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ISDCI News Group |
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