The Latest from Iran (25 March): Expanding the Sanctions

Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi presents the regime line against expanded sanctions over Iran's alleged human rights violations

See also Iran Special: The 17 Leading Officials in New EU Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses
The Latest from Iran (24 March): Putting Out the Propaganda

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1925 GMT: After a report this week that it had signed a $130 million contract with Tehran for a surveillance system (see separate feature), ZTE Corp, China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker, said it will "curtail" its business in Iran.

A spokesman said ZTE had decided "some time ago" to "shrink" its business in Iran, although he said the company had not yet decided on the details: "It's still being discussed."

1815 GMT: CyberWatch. The Next Web offers insight into the state of the Internet in Iran, by summarising how many of the top websites are blocked.

About 27% of the Top 100 sites in various categories, as measured by the Internet directory Alexa, are filtered. More than half of the Arts sites cannot be accessed, and 32% of news sites --- including BBC News, The Guardian, Fox News, The Huffington Post, and The New York Post are blocked, although CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, and Bloomberg can still be reached.

Among "Society" sites, 31% are blocked, as are 27% of those concerned with Shopping.

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Palestine Opinion: The Hunger Strike of Hana Shalabi --- "Will Anyone See It?" (Kuttab)

Hana Shalabi has been on hunger strike for over a month. Her condition has been deteriorating so badly that prison officials had to transfer her to a Haifa hospital (though she wasn't admitted to the hospital).

Shalabi is protesting being held in administrative detention. These detentions are quasi-legal action through which Israel incarcerates individuals without charge or proper trial. Israel inherited this undemocratic procedure from the British mandate, which enacted it as part of the 1945 emergency regulations.

International humanitarian law frowns on this procedure and Israel was asked by the international community on numerous occasions to end this practice. Over 300 Palestinians are presently held without charge.

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The Latest from Iran (19 March): Hunger Striker Khazali is Freed on Bail

See also The Latest from Iran (18 March): Relying on India

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Mehdi Khazali2120 GMT: Drumbeats of War Watch (Backlash Edition). So is this the reason for the counter-spin by US officials against an Israeli attack on Iran (see 1325 GMT)? Is it part of the counter-spin? Or both?

From The New York Times:

A classified war simulation exercise held this month to assess the American military’s capabilities to respond to an Israeli attack on Iran forecast that the strike would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead, according to American officials.

The officials said the so-called war game was not designed as a rehearsal for American military action — and they emphasized that the exercise’s results were not the only possible outcome of a real-world conflict. But the game has raised fears among top American planners that it may be impossible to preclude American involvement in any escalating confrontation with Iran, the officials said. In the debate among policymakers over the consequences of any possible Israeli attack, that reaction may give stronger voice to those within the White House, Pentagon and intelligence community who have warned that a strike could prove perilous for the United States.

The results of the war game were particularly troubling to Gen. James N. Mattis, who commands all American forces in the Middle East, Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia, according to officials who either participated in the Central Command exercise or who were briefed on the results and spoke on condition of anonymity because of its classified nature. When the exercise had concluded earlier this month, according to the officials, General Mattis told aides that an Israeli first-strike would likely have dire consequences across the region and for United States forces there.

The two-week war game, called “Internal Look,” played out a narrative in which the United States found it was pulled into the conflict after Iranian missiles struck a Navy warship in the Persian Gulf, killing about 200 Americans, according to officials with knowledge of the exercise. The United States then retaliated by launching its own strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The initial Israeli attack was assessed to have set back the Iranian nuclear program by roughly a year, and the subsequent American strikes did not slow the Iranian nuclear program by more than an additional two years. However, other Pentagon planners have said that America’s arsenal of long-range bombers, refueling aircraft and precision missiles could do far more damage to the Iranian nuclear program — if President Obama were to decide on a full-scale retaliation.

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Iran Feature: Pushing Back with "Intelligence" Against the Drumbeats of War (Risen)

James Risen, the intelligence correspondent of The New York Times, posts an interesting intervention in the spin and counter-spin over "war" and Iran's nuclear programme.

Risen's colleagues David Sanger and William Broad have been fed by other US officials in the White House, the Pentagon, and the CIA to push the spectre of Iran threat. Risen's contacts in the intelligence community, however, do not believe that the information --- as opposed to the spinning of that information --- point to an imminent Iranian Bomb. 

With the brake on military action applied by President Obama last week and the likely resumption of nuclear talks with Tehran, Risen gets the space in The Times to present that line muting the drumbeats of war. Note that --- as in the pieces pushing the Iranian spectre --- the actual information given is sparse; the significance here is the presentation of that supposed material:

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U.S. Faces a Tricky Task in Assessment of Data on Iran
James Risen

While American spy agencies have believed that the Iranians halted efforts to build a nuclear bomb back in 2003, the difficulty in assessing the government’s ambitions was evident two years ago, when what appeared to be alarming new intelligence emerged, according to current and former United States officials.<

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Turkey Live Coverage (12 March): A Week for the Kurdish Issue?

2100 GMT: Hayrettin Ayoglu, a 75-year old Turkish citizen was killed by Syrian border soldiers' fire while himself and the driver were approaching to cross the border. The driver didn't stop and drove to Kilis province of Turkey. Ayoglu was not saved in Kilis Hospital. It is also reported that another car was targeted by Syrian soldiers in the evening but no one was hurt.

2030 GMT: George Sabra, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Council, told a news conference in Istanbul said that they had already decided to arm the Free Syrian Army and added that some foreign governments were helping to send weapons.

However, despite of these, Sabra called on Arab and Western governments to intervene militarily and to protect civilians through imposing a no-fly zone across all of Syria and establishing secured humanitarian corridors. Sabra continued:

The Syrian National Council has taken concrete and practical decisions to arm Free Syrian Army that is established to protect the civilians. And we invite all colonels and other military officials in the Syrian army to take sides with the people of Syria.

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Israeli Jets Kill 14 in Gaza; Rockets Fired into Southern Israel (Brulliard/Abdulkarim)

An explosion in Gaza today from an Israeli airstrike

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An escalation of cross-border violence continued for the second day on Saturday, as the death toll from Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip rose to 14 militants and militant factions fired dozens more rockets into southern Israel.

Two militant groups in Gaza said those killed in at least 10 airstrikes from Friday to Saturday were their fighters, among them a top commander. Witnesses and medics said the latest airstrike, at midday Saturday, killed two militants in the crowded Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis.

Militants vowed revenge after the initial strike that killed a leading commander on Friday, and they claimed responsibility for a subsequent torrent of more than 90 rockets that the Israeli military said were launched from Gaza toward southern Israel.

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Iran-Israel-US Video Special: "It's War!"

OK, The Day Today in 1994 does not specifically name Iran, Israel, and the US, but this is a pretty good portrayal of the media's coverage --- and manufacture --- of "war" in 2012. It's also horribly funny.

Israel Video, Transcript, & Snap Analysis: Netanyahu's Speech to AIPAC

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Last night Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington.

The take-away subject and line are predictable: when it comes to Iran, "We are determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. We leave all options on the table. And containment is definitely not an option. The Jewish state will not allow those seeking our destruction to possess the means to achieve that goal."

Put another way: "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then what is it? That’s right, it’s a duck –but this duck is a nuclear duck. And it’s time the world started calling a duck a duck.

At the same time, it is important --- though I suspect almost all the media coverage will miss the significance --- to know the subjects that Netanyahu did not address. Because he kept everyone's eyes and ears on Tehran, he did not have to refer to the changes in the Middle East because of the "Arab Spring" and Turkey's shifting position. He did not mention Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the status of Gaza, or the 1967 borders with Paletine --- indeed, he did not have to refer at all to negotiations with the Palestinians.

And that, rather than the headlines on Iran, is probably Netanyahu's greatest accomplishment last night.

THE PREPARED TEXT

Thank you for the warm reception. It could be heard as far away as Jerusalem – the eternal and united capital of Israel. More than two thirds of the Congress is in attendance here tonight. I deeply appreciate your being here.

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Palestine Breaking: Israel Frees Hunger Striker Khader Adnan (Al Jazeera English)

UPDATE 1850 GMT: Ran Cohen, the Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights (Israel), has confirmed that Khader Adnan has ended his hunger strike.

UPDATE 1705 GMT: The text of the Israeli Supreme Court statement:

We have been delivered a joint notice by the representative of the Appellant and the representative of the Respondents, according to which there is no intention to extend the administrative detention beyond 17 April 2012, and (after offsetting the days of detention during which the Appellant was subjected to a criminal investigation), subject to the absence of new and significant material being added in the matter of the Appellant. In light of the above, the Appellant has ended his hunger strike and declared his retraction of the appeal.This being the case, the appeal is stricken, and the hearing schedule for today is thereby cancelled.

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Palestine Letter: Khader Adnan "Why I Am on Hunger Strike"

Palestinian Boys Protest for Khader AdnanTwitter is filled tonight with messages with the hashtag #KhaderExists for Khader Adnan, now in the 64th day of his hunger strike.

Adnan is in "administrative detention" in an Israeli jail, under which he can be held without charge indefinitely. Last week he explained in a letter, delivered by his lawyer, why he was persisting with his fast:

I started my battle offering my soul to God almighty and adamant to go ahead until righteousness triumphs over falsehood. I am defending my dignity and my people’s dignity and not doing this in vain. 

The Israeli occupation has gone to extremes against our people, especially prisoners. I have been humiliated, beaten, and harassed by interrogators for no reason, and thus I swore to God I would fight the policy of administrative detention to which I and hundreds of my fellow prisoners fell prey.

Here I am in a hospital bed surrounded with prison wardens, handcuffed, and my foot tied to the bed. The only thing I can do is offer my soul to God as I believe righteousness and justice will eventually triumph over tyranny and oppression.

I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on.
"It is time the international community and the UN support prisoners and force the State of Israel to respect international human rights and stop treating prisoners as if they were not humans.