On July 16, a federal appeals court ordered the State Department to review its decision to label an Iranian opposition group as a foreign terrorist organization and strongly suggested the designation should be revoked.
After years of legal battle, the U.K. government was ordered by Britain's Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission, a body established to review disputes over terrorist designations, to take the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) off its terrorist list in 2008, and the EU followed it in January 2009. In the last week of the administration of George W. Bush, then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the group's petition that its terrorist label be removed.
The recent ruling declared "the group's due process protections were violated" and "cast doubt on" the sources and evidence provided by the State Department to justify the designation. The court noted a strict and immediate application of law would require a revocation of the designation but because of the "realities of the foreign policy and national security concerns," it opted instead to order the secretary of state to revise its decision.
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WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 21 firms it believes are front companies for the Iranian government, stepping up pressure on the Islamic republic over its nuclear program.
Accusing Tehran of trying to dodge sanctions by setting up opaque trading companies, the Treasury Department named a host of banking, mining and other companies spread throughout Europe and Japan as government-backed.
"As its isolation from the international financial and commercial systems increases, the government of Iran will continue efforts to evade sanctions," said Treasury undersecretary Stuart Levey.
Those moves, he said, included "using government-owned entities around the world that are not easily identifiable as Iranian to facilitate transactions in support of their illicit activities."
The firms included two Belarus-based banks, two Germany-based investment firms, and mining and engineering companies in Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Iran.
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(Reuters) - Ships carrying petroleum to Iran face greater scrutiny at ports in the United Arab Emirates as new western sanctions bite leaving the Islamic Republic to seek alternative hubs, trade and shipping sources say. While the latest sanctions have excluded Iranian crude oil sales, refined oil products imports have been affected with more shipowners fearful of being in breach of the measures.
Sources said that there was closer tracking of ships operating in UAE ports which had previously been used by Iran to transport fuel cargoes.
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WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday rebuffed a call from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for face-to-face talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama, saying Iran was not serious about discussing its nuclear program.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs nonetheless held the door open to US-Iran talks as the State Department saw signs that Tehran may now be seeking a dialogue with Washington under the pain of new sanctions.
"We have always said that we'd be willing to sit down and discuss Iran's illicit nuclear program, if Iran is serious about doing that," Gibbs told reporters.
"To date, that seriousness has not been there."
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TEHRAN - Hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he was ready for face-to-face talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama on "global issues."
"We are hopefully coming for the UN assembly," Ahmadinejad said in an address to expatriate Iranians which was broadcast live on state television.
"We are ready to sit down with Mr Obama face-to-face and put the global issues on the table, man-to-man, freely, and in front of the media and see whose solutions are better. We think this is a better approach."
Ahmadinejad is expected to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly meeting next month.
The Iranian president has previously challenged Obama to hold a public debate with him on issues concerning the international community.
He has on various occasions blamed the United States for "global disorders," particularly the financial crisis in the world economy.
His call on Monday comes after a series of punitive sanctions imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council, the United States and the European Union over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.
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John Limbert, one of the 52 Americans taken hostage by the Iranian regime in Tehran in 1979, suggested in a radio interview that the Obama experience has shown that the Iranian regime is not susceptible to negotiations.According to NPR on Saturday, Limbert, who will soon leave his job as the head of the State Department's Iran desk, said, "I think the Iranians, either out of a sense of insecurity or internal paralysis, seem unable to respond positively to what everyone sees as a very sincere effort at outreach." Limbert will step away from the Department's Iran desk after nine months on the job.
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's declaration that music is "not compatible" with the Islamic Republic has been rightly described as an expression of Khamenei's long-held mistrust of Western cultural influence, but the ruling is about more than just his dislike of music. His statement, which will be interpreted by state institutions as law, is likely designed to distract citizens from more substantive political and economic concerns. As Iranians react to a now-inevitable slate of anti-music laws -- especially likely, given the country's disproportionately young population -- they will be less focused on the country's long-worsening economy and tightening police state.

The ruling, which describes music itself as "halal" or acceptable by Islam but forbids "promoting and teaching" music, appears engineered to be confusing and leave room for many possible interpretations. Both individual citizens and state institutions will be forced to puzzle over what is allowed and what is forbidden. The laws on music and their enforcement are likely to change rapidly and unpredictably in the coming weeks.

After all, Iranians have seen this strategy before. The regime has used similar tactics in tightening the country's infamous regulations on clothing requirement for women. When the government leadership feels threatened by popular unrest or domestic political pressure, it often responds by changing the rules of dress or tightening enforcement, often with no formal announcement so as to create as much confusion as possible
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EXTENDING the US missile shield into southern Europe is a sophisticated refinement of Cold War deterrence theories. But the target is no longer the Kremlin, and even hardliners should be able to grasp that the move does not pose a threat to Russia.
Consider how the Obama administration shifted gear from the missile shield plans of George W. Bush, dropped the idea of installing long-range missiles in Poland and is now going to deploy short-range interceptors.
The Europeans are broadly in agreement with the shield, but in the corridors of EU power you pick up mumbles of discontent.
The fundamental premise of extending the shield is not that Iran suddenly decides to blast a missile at Rome. Rather, it is that Iran tries to escalate a war after Israelis hit their nuclear facilities.
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A Kuwaiti court on Tuesday charged six men, including a Kuwaiti soldier, and a woman with spying for Iran but the accused denied the charges alleging they had confessed under pressure. At the opening of the trial of the alleged spy cell, judge Adel al-Sager read out the charges to the six men who categorically denied them from their metal cage and claimed they were tortured during interrogation. The only woman in the alleged spy ring, an Iranian, was not present in the court room. Unlike the six men, she is not detained as she had been freed without bail pending trial. The charges include passing on confidential military information to a foreign nation, taking pictures of Kuwaiti military installations and spying for Iran. Three of the defendants are Iranian, two are stateless, one is Kuwaiti and the other is Syrian
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The best friend of tyrants in the democratic world -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva -- has once again been humiliated by one of his clients.
That would be Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the sponsor of terrorism and Holocaust denier whom Lula has publicly embraced -- literally. Over the weekend, under pressure from domestic protesters, Lula appealed to the Iranian president to free Sakineh Ashtiani, an Iranian women condemned to death by stoning on charges of adultery, and allow her to go into exile in Brazil.
"If my friendship and affection for the president of Iran matters, and if this woman is causing problems there, we will welcome her here in Brazil," Lula proclaimed..
On Tuesday the Brazilian leader got his answer: a direct rebuff from Ahmadinejad's government, which, with exquisite condescension, described Lula as soft in the head. "As far as we know, he is a very humane and emotional person who probably has not received enough information about the case," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast. "What can be done is to let him know about the details of the case of this person who has committed a crime and has been convicted accordingly."
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On 26th June 100,000 exiled Iranians gathered in the outskirts of Paris in a massive show of support for the Iranian people's opposition movement whilst at the same time demanding the implementation of stronger sanctions. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President elect of the opposition in exile, roused the crowds who had earlier heard from John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and Jose Maria Aznar, Spain's former Prime Minister.
Mr. Bolton urged the Obama administration to lift the terrorist designation on the People's Mojahedin (MeK), the principle opposition group. The group, which was first blacklisted by the Clinton administration to curry favour with the mullahs, was removed last year from the EU's banned list after the courts found no evidence that it was involved in terrorism. Earlier this month the D.C. court of appeal ordered the U.S. State Department to re-examine its decision to maintain the MeK on its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations. A bi-partisan effort led by Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), in Congress seeking support for a bill calling for the end to the group's terrorist designation is in progress and needs backing.
The cries from the meeting in Paris coupled with those on the streets of Iran appear to have finally been heard by Western leaders. Whilst harassing Tehran's leaders with sanctions over their nuclear defiance we must also support the Iranian people's democratic opposition movement. The objective is a free and democratic Iran, and that must be worth supporting
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