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Dear Readers,

Due to lack of funding Planet Iran is unable to continue publishing at this point in time; we can only survive with grants and donations from our readers. If you wish to make a tax deductible donation, we would be most grateful and meanwhile we are working hard to fundraise, in the hopes to restart publishing in the spring. Please revisit us then.

Thank you for your patronage.

Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi
Editor-in-Chief

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By Moahammad Reza Yazdanpanah

Source: Rooz Online

October 21, 2010

While state-run media are boasting a historic reception for ayatollah Khamenei in his visit to Qom, an informed source who participated in the welcome ceremony told Rooz that the Islamic republic supreme leader’s reception was “much less” than compared to previous visits.

He added that, as it can been seen on numerous official photographs from the ceremony, many of the participants in the ceremony as well as during Mr. Khamanei’s speech were African and Arab immigrants residing in Qom, particularly immigrants from Iraq many of whom are supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite Iraqi cleric currently residing in Qom.

As noted by this informed source, none of the official photographs appearing on state-run media outlets show an aerial view of the street where the welcome ceremony was held. Almost all of the released photographs are taken from close range or with wide camera lenses. The aerial photographs released are taken either from very far away or very close to the ground and do not reveal any conclusive information.

Rooz’s eyewitness source also stated that none of the grand ayatollahs residing in Qom, even those who are known for supporting the Islamic republic supreme leader, attended the welcome ceremony or subsequent meetings with the Islamic republic supreme leader.

Previous reports had revealed intense pressure on grand ayatollahs to coerce them into attending Mr. Khamenei’s welcome ceremony.

Only three out of the ten grand ayatollahs currently residing in Qom made remarks in support of ayatollah Khamenei’s visit. However, neither these three grand ayatollahs nor the remaining seven attended Mr. Khamenei’s welcome ceremony.

One informed source who attended Mr. Khamenei’s welcome ceremony told Rooz, “Yesterday’s reception of Mr. Khamenei was the coldest and least passionate reception of the Islamic republic supreme leader compared to all his previous visits.”

According to him, “At most, thirty to forty thousand people attended the ceremony, which is les than five percent of Qom’s more than one million inhabitants.”

He added, “The planning and intense organizing of Mr. Khamenei’s reception was in effect carried out by three military-security organizations: Jaish al-Mahdi, the Qods Army and Mr. Khamenei’s personal security team.”

While in Qom, the Islamic republic supreme leader delivered a fiery speech, noting, “Last year’s sedition actually vaccinated the country against microbes, which can be political or social microbes,” adding, “The post-election sedition, contrary to the enemy’s expectation, increased the insight of the Iranian people.”

Mr. Khamenei’s office has announced that the supreme leader will visit Qom for nine days. None of the supreme leader’s previous official visits to Qom lasted longer than three days.

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Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

October 20, 2010

Blogger “The Writings from the Heart of a Citizen Journalist” writes about a young boy he saw in central Tehran who was forced to work to help his family make ends meet:

Today I went to the Revolution Square to buy books, and there I saw a heartrending scene. An 8- or 9-year-old boy was making some money with a scale he had while at the same time doing his homework. He was also selling a few toys.

I asked the boy what his father was doing. He said he sells vegetables at Emamzadeh Hassan [a bazaar in southern Tehran], and he said he’s forced to work to help with the expenses. I gave him a 1,000-tuman [about $10] bill to try to make him happy and also make a contribution even though small.

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* * State-run daily, Iran, reports that in recent days, four of the ‘Mournful Mothers’, all women who have lost children in the anti-regime protests in Iran since the June 2009 fraudulent election, were arrested.

Agents arrested the four women at Tehran’s airport, while they were waiting to board flights to Germany. The Iranian regime has accused the four, all members of the reformist Mournful Mothers of espionage and collaboration with France-based Iranian opposition group, Mujahedeen Khalq (also known as MEK, MKO, PMOI or National Council of Resistance).  They are all being detained in an undisclosed location.

The Iranian judiciary and prosecutor’s office also claim to have built a case against reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s wife Dr. Zahra Rahnavard (photo right), who is a prominent member of the Mournful Mothers. Reports however indicate that typically, the four women have been abused, pressured and even tortured while in detention, to force them to make false confessions against Rahnavard alleging she has conspired with the PMOI.

* * The office of the Iranian reformist party, Mojahedeen of the Islamic Revolution, was raided by the Iranian regime’s plain clothes militia members. Reformist website, Jaras reports that the agents confiscated all computers, and documents from the office and that during the raid two of the employees were locked away in a room.

In September the Iranian public prosecutor prosecutor and spokesman for the judiciary announced that the two reformist parties Mohajedeen of the Islamic Revolution and Islamic Iran Participation front have been officially dissolved by the judiciary.  The two organizations disputed the decision and the IIPF even published a document revealing that one of the branches of the Revolutionary court has in fact annulled the move against their organization and reinstated them.

Last week, Mohammad Salamti, secretary general of Mojahedeen of the Islamic Revolution announced that his organization still considers itself a legal entity and will continue all its activities within the framework of the law.

He announced that the organization has not been involved in any legal action against it and none of its representatives have been summoned to any legal proceedings.

Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution started its political activities in its current form in 1991. Following the 2009 presidential elections and the widespread protests over the alleged vote fraud that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, several executive members of this organization were arrested.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with the leaders of France and Germany in Deauville. 14:59 19/10/2010 © RIA Novosti. Vladimir Rodionov

Source: RIA Novosti

October 19, 2010

DEAUVILLE – Russia, France and Germany plan to encourage Iran to begin full-fledged cooperation, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at talks in Deauville, France, on Tuesday.

“This discussion shows that we look at many issues in the same way. This gives us an opportunity to coordinate our positions and to reach rather specific results,” Medvedev told journalists after a summit with the leaders of France and Germany.

The Russian leader said the negotiations focused on regional issues, the Middle East and Iran. Speaking on Iran, he said the sides have “agreed to try to stick to the approaches that were earlier elaborated.”

“On the one hand, we should follow the sanctions that have been approved. On the other hand, we should push and impel Iran to cooperate in all the issues,” Medvedev said.

The West suspects Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons under the guise of its nuclear program, which Tehran says is aimed at the peaceful generation of civilian energy.

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Source: Reuters U.S.

October 20, 2010

Unlisted Iranian appliance maker Entekhab Industrial Group will sign a deal soon to buy South Korea’s Daewoo Electronics for about 577.8 billion won ($513 million), Daewoo’s leading creditor said on Wednesday.

Woori Bank, which represents creditors-turned-shareholders of the unlisted Korean firm, said they will sign an official contract with Entekhab as soon as possible after receiving letters of endorsements from creditors by early next week.

The Iranian company had trumped Swedish electronics firm Electrolux (ELUXb.ST) earlier this year and was named as a preferred bidder for Daewoo, once the flagship unit of the failed Daewoo Group and now almost wholly owned by its 39 creditors. [ID:nTOE63D07F]

It is the fourth attempt for the creditors to sell Daewoo, which focuses primarily on washing machines and refrigerators.

In the previous bidding rounds, a series of sales talks fell through with Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity unit of Morgan Stanley (MS.N), and a consortium of India’s Videocon Industries (VEDI.BO) and RJH International (RHJI.BR).

Export-focused Daewoo competes with bigger local rival Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and LG Electronics (066570.KS) and low-cost Chinese producers.

($1=1126.7 Won)

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Ken Wills)

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By Glenn Kessler

Source: The Washington Post

October 20, 2010

Iran is secretly trying to set up banks in Muslim countries around the world, including Iraq and Malaysia, using dummy names and opaque ownership structures to skirt sanctions that have increasingly curtailed the Islamic republic’s global banking activities, U.S. officials say.

The Treasury Department has blacklisted 16 Iranian banks for allegedly supporting Iran’s nuclear program and terrorist activities; other countries have followed suit with their own measures. Tehran’s search for new banking avenues is a sign of the growing effectiveness of the sanctions, U.S. officials said.

Still, they think that Iran has had limited success, if any, in secretly setting up banks.

“The Iranians, we believe, are trying to set up operations in a number of places, and it’s an indication that they can’t do normal banking,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly. “They want to buy banks and set up banks in various places where they believe they will be able to carry out business without the United States being able to impede it.”

M. Bak Sahraei, a spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, said he could not immediately comment but would seek guidance from officials in Tehran.

The U.S. official said the Obama administration is aware of Iran’s efforts in “a number of neighboring countries and not-so-neighboring countries.”

In Iraq, an Iraqi official said, Tehran has established at least two banks in Baghdad, including one affiliated with Bank Melli, Iran’s largest commercial bank. The U.N. Security Council listed Bank Melli in 2008 as being involved with Iran’s nuclear activities, and the European Union has shut down all of its offices in Europe. Iran also has tried – without success – to establish commercial banks farther north in Iraq, in the Kurdistan region, the Iraqi official added.

Treasury officials have fanned out across the globe in recent weeks, visiting such countries as Azerbaijan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Lebanon to bolster compliance with sanctions. Treasury and State Department officials have warned “local authorities of the risks of letting these operations take root,” the U.S. official added.

Azerbaijan has a branch of Bank Melli in Baku, its capital, and last month Iran offered to create a joint bank for the two countries, according to Azeri news reports. In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department alleged that Futurebank in Bahrain was controlled by Bank Melli, but it continues to operate there.

Iranian Finance Minister Shamseddin Hosseini told reporters in Washington this month that while “Iran has faced some trouble from sanctions,” it has had few problems trading with other countries or securing hard currency.

“The world is big, and the people who are trading [with us] find ways to transfer money,” Hosseini asserted. “When you block the stream of water, it goes another route.”

“It has always been a cat-and-mouse game with Iran,” said Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department official and director of a counterterrorism and intelligence program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He said the banking operations, even if successfully created in other countries, are likely to be small-scale and insufficient to make up for the volume of banking activity Iran has lost.

For years, the United Arab Emirates was an important conduit for Iranian goods and financial transactions. But since the latest U.N. Security Council sanctions were approved in June, the UAE has cracked down on Iranian activities, in part by curtailing financial dealings with Iranian banks blacklisted by Washington. In response, Iran appears to have tried to enlist Malaysia as a new financial hub, but without success, the U.S. official said.

“As the Emirates have begun to take stronger measures, the Iranians are looking for other financial and commercial centers that they can exploit,” he said. “It’s clear that they have had their eye on Malaysia for a while. It is a constant topic of discussion with Malaysia authorities. ”

Malaysia has been a transshipment hub for suspect goods for Iran, making it a logical place for financial transactions. But this year, the Malaysian government announced that it had enacted an export-control law intended to strengthen its ability to curb trade in materiel for weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S. official praised the steps taken by Malaysian authorities to thwart Iranian efforts, including their suspension of the local branch of Iran’s second-largest bank, Bank Mellat.

U.S. officials have emphasized repeatedly to financial institutions the reputational risks of continuing to do business with Iranian entities. As the Revolutionary Guard Corps, long involved in Iran’s nuclear and missile activities, has expanded into other industries, U.S. officials have responded by blacklisting a long list of companies associated with the corps and warning international firms that they cannot be sure if they are doing business with a target of sanctions.

Major international banks, such as Lloyds, Credit Suisse and Barclays, also have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars by U.S. authorities for continuing to process payments that originated in Iran or altering records to disguise such payments.

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For Immediate Release

Contact:

* Manda Zand Ervin, Alliance of Iranian Women : (703) 447-3888 or (410) 531-6198
* Victoria Toensing : (202) 289-7701
* Beth Gilinsky, Women United: Code Red (212) 726-1124 or email : actionalliance1@yahoo.com

New York and Washington, May 5, 2010 — International human rights and women’s rights leaders, attorneys, scholars, columnists, Iranian human rights activists, media figures, women in the arts, and other prominent women have joined a nationwide campaign to urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to denounce the recent election of Iran to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

In an Open Letter to Secretary Clinton released today (text below) the leaders expressed their profound concern that Iran was “elected by acclamation” to the women’s rights seat.  Election by acclamation may occur when no United Nations member state requests an open vote.  The signatories, citing reports by the U.S. State Department and international human rights organizations of the Iranian regime’s record of barbaric human rights violations, are seeking answers from Secretary Clinton regarding the failure of the U.S. either to request or require an open vote on Iran’s election to the Commission.

The full text and a partial list of signatories to the letter follows, and more signatories’  names will be released this week.

###

AN OPEN LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: DENOUNCE ELECTION OF IRAN TO U.N. WOMEN’S RIGHTS COMMISSION

May 5, 2010

Dear Secretary Clinton:

We write as women leaders from across America and from organizations concerned with women’s human rights representing oppressed women and minorities.

We call on you, Secretary Clinton, to denounce Iran’s election to a four-year seat on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as an appointment that shocks the conscience of civilized societies.

We also wish to express our utter astonishment that Iran was “elected by acclamation,”  which means that none of the United Nations’  member states – including the United States of America – requested or required an open vote on Iran’s election to the Commission.  Why did the United States fail to request an open vote?

In 1995, to an audience of the Fourth World Conference on Women, you declared: “It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.” You added: “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/06/world/hillary-clinton-in-china-details-abuse-of-women.html?pagewanted=1

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney of New York said she “believed that you spoke from personal conviction.”

Therefore, we are puzzled and deeply troubled that, as Secretary, you have remained silent regarding human rights abuses under the brutal Islamic Republic of Iran regime.

The government of Iran is the perpetrator of well-known, well-documented and shocking human rights abuses against women.  There are sickening and horrific videos, websites, documented reports of gang rapes, stonings, mutilations, hangings, beatings, burnings and other barbaric acts of violence, intimidation, and humiliation against the women of Iran. Political dissidents, gays, non-Muslim minorities, apostates, and infidels are also targeted in widespread human rights violations and gruesome attacks — all these atrocities are egregious violations of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Two hundred and fourteen Iranian activists recently wrote to U.N. member states to oppose Iran’s election to the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women. Their letter states:  “Iran’s discriminatory laws demonstrate that the Islamic Republic does not believe in gender equality…Women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women’s admission at universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of such laws.”
Click here for more on Iran’s human rights record.

he U.S. Department of State’s 2009 report on Iran’s human rights clearly states the egregious violations of Iran in this area:

•    The government’s poor human rights record degenerated during the year [2009], particularly after the disputed June presidential elections. The government severely limited citizens’ right to peacefully change their government through free and fair elections. The government executed numerous persons for criminal convictions as juveniles and after unfair trials. Security forces were implicated in custodial deaths and the killings of election protesters and committed other acts of politically motivated violence, including torture, beatings, and rape. The government administered severe officially sanctioned punishments, including death by stoning, amputation, and flogging. Vigilante groups with ties to the government committed acts of violence. Prison conditions remained poor. Security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals, often holding them incommunicado. Authorities held political prisoners and intensified a crackdown against women’s rights reformers, ethnic minority rights activists, student activists, and religious minorities. There was a lack of judicial independence and of fair public trials. The government severely restricted the right to privacy and civil liberties, including freedoms of speech and the press, assembly, association, and movement; it placed severe restrictions on freedom of religion. Official corruption and a lack of government transparency persisted. Violence and legal and societal discrimination against women, ethnic and religious minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons; trafficking in persons; and incitement to anti-Semitism remained problems. The government severely restricted workers’ rights, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, and arrested numerous union organizers. Child labor remained a serious problem. On November 20, for the seventh consecutive year, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution on Iran expressing concern about the country’s “serious, ongoing, and recurring human rights violations.” (emphasis added)

•    Source: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/nea/136068.htm
The Commission’s mandate is to review and report on women’s human rights and monitor progress toward improving women’s human rights.  Clearly, the election of Iran to such a Commission is an appalling example of hypocrisy. We await your public and clear condemnation of this outrageously sexist and insensitive decision by the U.N.

Signatories (partial list):

• Nazanin Afshin-Jam, International Human Rights Activist, President and Co-Founder of Stop Child Executions

• Irene Alter, President, Center for Policy Research in American Education

• Anne Applebaum, columnist

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Resident Scholar, AEI and Founder of the AHA Foundation (www.theAHAfoundation.org)

• Danielle Avel, Columnist

• Dr. Toby F. Block, Senior Academic Professional (retired) Georgia Institute of Technology

• Gretchen S. Bolton, Treasurer, AHA Foundation, Inc.

• Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, Planet Iran

• Shoshana Bryen, Senior Director for Security Policy, JINSA

• Joy Brighton, Stop Shariah Now

• Bernadette Brady, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

• Christine Brim, Center for Security Policy

• Debra Burlingame, Co-Founder, 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America

• Mona Charen, Syndicated Columnist, Creators Syndicate

• Dr. Phyllis Chesler, the Phyllis Chesler Organization

• Nonie Darwish, President FormerMuslimsUnited.org

• Korrine Diggs, Stop Modern Slavery, Founder and Director, Philadelphia Chapter

• Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness

• Barbara Donno, Nassau/Queens 9/12 Group

• Michelle Easton, President, Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute

• Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, Director, American Center for Democracy

• Manda Zand Ervin, Founder and President, Alliance of Iranian Women

• Clarice Feldman, columnist, Washington DC

• Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Employment Policy, Hudson Institute

• Danielle Frum, author and journalist

• Brigitte Gabriel, ACT for America.org

• Georgette Gelbard, Chairwoman, Cyber Counter Terrorism Center of the Middle East Forum
  

• Pamela Geller, Co-Founder, Stop Islamization of America

• Beth Gilinsky, Founder, Action Alliance and Women United: Code Red

• Catherine Gossman, College of Social Work, The Ohio State University

• Debra Guckenheimer, Ph.D., Northeastern Advance Postdoctoral ResearchAssociate, Northeastern University

• Meghan Gurdon, author and journalist

• Carol A. Haave, former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, DHS

• Pamela Hall, New York – United American Committee

• Aggie R. Hoffman, Attorney at Law, Los Angeles, CA.
  

• Donna M. Hughes, Professor & Carlson Endowed Chair, Women’s Studies Program, University of Rhode Island

• Laura Ingraham, Laura Ingraham Show

• Margo Itskowitch, Women United, Los Angeles, CA

• Erica Saghar Kasraie, Spokesperson, Confederation of Iranian Students

• Karen Khan, attorney, Women’s Freedom Movement of Pakistan

• Judith Apter Klinghoffer, History News Network

• Andrea Lafferty, Traditional Values Coalition

• Barbara Ledeen, Women United: Code Red

• Janet Levy, Women Against Shariah

• Reggie Littlejohn, Founder and President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

• Mary Beth Long, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

• Jody Lisberger, Ph.D., M.F.A., Director of Women’s Studies, The University of Rhode Island

• May Long, Christians and Jews United for Israel

• Sheryl Longin, Pajamas Media

• Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Founder and President, Z Street

• Hillary Markowitz, Mothers Against Terrorism

• Faith McDonnell, Director, Religious Liberty Programs, Institute on Religion and Democracy

• Ruth Messinger

• Myra Miller, The Winston Group

• Cleta Mitchell, Esq., Chairman, American Conservative Union Foundation

• Doris Wise Montrose, President, American Children of Holocaust Survivors

• Penny Nance, CEO, Concerned Women for America

• Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh and Cyrus Nowrasteh, The Stoning of Soraya M

• Kate O’Beirne, President, National Review Institute

• Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General, United States Department of  Justice, 2001 – 2007

• Daphne Patai, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

• Kathleen Parker, Washington Post syndicated columnist

• Joan Peters, Author-Historian: National Committee on American Foreign Policy

• Dianne Post, International Human Rights lawyer

• Racquel Reinstein, attorney
  

• Susan Rosenbluth, Editor and Publisher, Jewish Voice and Opinion

• Mary Rose Rybak, Managing Editor, First Things

• Nicole Sadighi, Fellow, Researcher at the Center for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy for Iran

• Melanie Shapiro, Citizens Against Trafficking, Co-founder

• Nina Shea, Director, Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom; Commissioner, US Commission on International Religious Freedom

• Christina Hoff Sommers, American Enterprise Institute

• Dr. Clare Spark, Independent Scholar Los Angeles

• Sarah N. Stern, Founder and President, Endowment for Middle East Truth

• Linda Stulberg, Women United: Code Red, Michigan

• Dr. Wafa Sultan

• Allyson Rowen Taylor, Women United: Code Red, California

• Giti Thadani, New Delhi – India

• Virginia Thomas, President/CEO, Liberty Central

• Victoria Toensing, Former Chief Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and for Deputy Assistant Attorney General,  Department of
  Justice

• Diana West, Washington Examiner syndicated columnist and author

Women United invites women across America to sign onto this statement.

To become a signatory, please contact (212) 726-1124 or actionalliance1@yahoo.com.  An updated list and copy of this letter can be viewed at http://wucr.wordpress.com/

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Source: FoxNews

April 29, 2010

Iran's Ghadr-1 missile is paraded during a ceremony marking National Army Day outside Tehran April 18. (AP Photo)

The Obama administration is pressing Congress to exempt certain companies from possible sanctions directed at Iran, a move one lawmaker said is aimed squarely at letting businesses in China and Russia off the hook in exchange for their cooperation.

The Obama administration is pressing Congress to exempt certain companies from possible sanctions directed at Iran, a move one lawmaker said is aimed squarely at letting businesses in China and Russia off the hook in exchange for their cooperation.

Lawmakers from the House and Senate are negotiating on a bill that would penalize companies for doing business with Iran’s energy sector. The administration is lobbying for an exemption for companies based in “cooperating countries” — presumably meaning countries cooperating with the Obama administration’s Iran strategy.

The effort, first reported by The Washington Times, is not sitting well with some in Congress. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the exemption clearly is aimed at Russia and China, which have business ties to Iran and which the Obama administration needs to pass U.N. sanctions on the Islamic republic.

“The security of our nation and our allies cannot afford… to produce a bill that is so full of holes,” Ros-Lehtinen told Fox News. “It is time for Congress to fill the vacuum created by executive branch inaction … and enact crippling, mandatory sanctions that address the rapidly growing threat posed by Iran.”

House and Senate lawmakers are set to meet in a conference committee Thursday to try to hash out the details of a final bill, which they hope to complete by next month. It coincides with U.S.-led negotiations on a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran, intended to halt uranium enrichment.

But a senior Obama administration official told Fox News that it is working toward “the toughest possible” U.N. sanctions and disputed the idea that it was trying to water down the congressional legislation.

“We’re also involved in conversations with Congress about sanctions legislation to ensure it has sufficient breadth and depth. We strongly reject the idea that it’s somehow being weakened,” the official said. “Rather, we’re working to make sure the president has the maximum amount of flexibility as we increase the pressure on Iran across many fronts. The exemptions discussed are not targeted to any country in particular, but would be based on objective criteria and made in full consultation with Congress.”

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has applied for a visa to attend a nuclear summit at the United Nations next week, an opportunity for him to lobby world leaders against the sanctions.

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Opposition leader’s wife says family has no security

Source: Agence France Presse (AFP)/AlArabiya

April 25, 2010

Fatemeh Karroubi said armed men have raided the family home (File)

TEHRAN – The wife of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has charged that armed men raided their home and warned that the country’s Islamic regime would be held responsible if family members are harmed, a report said Sunday.

“Mehdi Karroubi’s family lacks even the minimum security because of the open and unwavering support it has given to oppressed people,” Fatemeh Karroubi said in a statement carried by Sahamnews, Karroubi’s website.

“I insist, if anything happens to me, my husband or children the regime is directly responsible and can never shrug off responsibility,” she said.

“Fifteen armed men intimidated the caretaker and illegally broke into our home in our absence,” she added, without specifying when the incident took place.

She also said that “suspicious gas was directly fired” into Karroubi’s face during a march on the anniversary of the Islamic revolution on February 11.

Karroubi’s Tehran apartment building was vandalized in March by a group of hardliners whom his wife branded as “thugs” paid by “corrupt” government officials.

Karroubi and main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have led a protest movement against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his June re-election, which they reject as massively rigged.

Karroubi, an outspoken reformist cleric and two-time parliament speaker, has especially angered hardliners backing Ahmadinejad by charging some post-vote detainees had been raped in custody.

The authorities have denied this but grudgingly admitted widespread prisoner abuse had been committed in notorious Kahrizak jail, south of Tehran.

Hardliners have stepped up pressure on opposition figures and reformist former president Mohammad Khatami was reportedly prevented from travelling to Japan this month.